DEV Community

Arseny Zinchenko
Arseny Zinchenko

Posted on • Originally published at rtfm.co.ua on

Bitwarden: an organization’s password manager self-hosted version installation on an AWS EC2

#passwords #security #ssl

We consider Bitwarden as a passwords keeper for our project with the main goal to have an ability to have separated access to secrets by user roles and/or ACLs.

I.e. Pass or KeePass are good for self-usage by one person but they have no main things – a normal web-interface and role-based access to data. There are 1Password/LastPass of course, but they keep data on their own servers which is not too good for me.

Bitwarden is Opensource and can be used as a Cloud-based version or can be installed on your own server.

It has personal Free-version and paid with additional features.

Besides the personal usage, it can be used for Business with user roles – will try it later.

The home page is here>>>.

The main things I did like in Bitwarden:

  • has desktop applications for для Linux, macOS, Windows
  • all browsers extensions
  • applications for Android and iOS
  • RESTful API (in Enterprise version), i.e. theoretically can be used from Jenkins to populate its secrets
  • has CLI utilities
  • MFA authorization
  • roles/groups based access (Enterprise version)
  • File Storage
  • data import from other passwords managers (Chrome, KeePass, 1Password etc)

Quick installation documentation available here here>>> and full – here>>>.

In this post, Bitwarden will be installed on an AWS EC2 instance with additional EBS volume mounted to /bitwarden where Bitwarden will store its data and which will be backed up by AWS Data Lifecycle Manager.

On the EC2 will have NGINX running as a frontend and SSL sessions with a certificate from Let’s Encrypt will be terminated here.

Although Bitwarden is running in a Docker Compose stack with its own NGINX and Let’s Encrypt certificates support – I’ll do it in a more traditional way, i.e. NGINX on a host will proxy requests to the NGINX in the Bitwarden’s stack, and this NGINX in its turn will proxy requests to its internal services.

Contents

  • AWS
    • Creating EC2
    • Creating EBS
    • Security Group
    • Mounting EBS
  • DNS
  • The host’s set up
    • Let’s Encrypt
    • NGINX
    • Docker and Docker Compose
  • Bitwarden installation
    • Bitwarden configuration
    • Email configuration
    • Registration in the Bitwarden
    • Bitwarden Admin and users
    • Users settings
  • Working with Bitwarden
    • Chrome plugin
    • Linux desktop
    • Import from KeePass
    • Multi-factor authorization
    • Backuping and restoring Bitwarden storage

AWS

Creating EC2

Will use Debian here. AMIs can be found here>>>.

At first, I started t3.nano but this wasn’t enough – an instance just hangs up after starting Bitwarden which is not surprising knowing that fact that it uses MSSQL and has 9 containers running. And Bitwarden itself is Bitwarden is .NET application written in C#.

Run an EC2 with the t3.medium type:

$ aws --profile bm-backend  ec2 run-instances --region eu-west-1 --image-id ami-01820e22b83de8d0d --key-name setevoy-testing --instance-type t3.medium --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=bitwarden-dev}]'
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Get its Availability Zone:

$ aws --profile bm-backend ec2 describe-instances --region eu-west-1 --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=bitwarden-dev" --query "Reservations[\*].Instances[\*].[Placement.AvailabilityZone]" --output text

eu-west-1a
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Creating EBS

Create an EBS volume (by default the standard i.e. HDD will be used, if you want to have SSD – add --volume-type gp2):

$ aws --profile bm-backend ec2 create-volume --region eu-west-1 --availability-zone eu-west-1a --size 5 --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=volume,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=bitwarden-dev-ebs}]'
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Here we set the same region (--region eu-west-1) and the same Availability Zone (--availability-zone eu-west-1a) where the ЕС2 was started and the disk size is 5 GiB.

Get this EBS ID:

$ aws --profile bm-backend ec2 describe-volumes --region eu-west-1  --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=bitwarden-dev-ebs" --query "Volumes[\*].VolumeId" --output text

vol-0621e68897eb2a3d8
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

And ID of the EC2:

$ aws --profile bm-backend ec2 describe-instances --region eu-west-1 --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=bitwarden-dev" --query "Reservations[\*].Instances[\*].InstanceId" --output text

i-0ac18e298768e2c4b
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Attach this EBS to the EC2:

$ aws --profile bm-backend ec2 attach-volume --region eu-west-1 --volume-id vol-0621e68897eb2a3d8 --instance-id i-0ac18e298768e2c4b --device xvdb
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Security Group

Create a Security Group – here via WebUI to make it quickly.

During creating this SG pay attention on a VPC ID – must be the same as used for your EC2:

Allow access to the 80 port from anywhere to make Let’s Encrypt authorization working.

443 and 22 ports allowed from our office only.

Attache this SG to the EC2 – Networking > Change Security Group:

Mounting EBS

Log in to the server:

$ ssh admin@34.240.14.78 -i setevoy-testing-eu-west-1.pem
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Check disks:

$ admin@ip-172-31-36-249:~$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1     259:0    0   8G  0 disk
└─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   8G  0 part /
nvme1n1     259:2    0   5G  0 disk
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

nvme1n1 is our EBS.

Create /bitwarden directory:

admin@ip-172-31-36-249:~$ sudo -s
root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# mkdir /bitwarden
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Create a partition on the /dev/nvme1n1:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# sgdisk -n 1 /dev/nvme1n1
Creating new GPT entries.
The operation has completed successfully.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Create a file system:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme1n1p1
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Check partitions now:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# fdisk /dev/nvme1n1
...
Device         Start      End  Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme1n1p1  2048 10485726 10483679   5G Linux filesystem
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Mount it to the /bitwarden:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# mount /dev/nvme1n1p1 /bitwarden/
root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# ls -l /bitwarden/
total 16
drwx------ 2 root root 16384 Apr 30 10:15 lost+found
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Get partition’s ID:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# blkid /dev/nvme1n1p1
/dev/nvme1n1p1: UUID="5e3972d4-c742-4224-80d6-8239e5201ae1" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="929f264c-ac03-4f9f-9071-056c1511de0e"
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Using this UUID add a new mount point to the /etc/fstab with the --nofail option:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# cat /etc/fstab
UUID=3866caa4-0449-4478-899b-60eb6f71dd26       /       ext4    rw,discard,errors=remount-ro    0       1
UUID="5e3972d4-c742-4224-80d6-8239e5201ae1" /bitwarden ext4 nofail 0 0
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Unmount partition mounted manually:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# umount /bitwarden/
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

And mount it back using fstab:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# mount -a
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Check:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# findmnt /bitwarden/
TARGET     SOURCE         FSTYPE OPTIONS
/bitwarden /dev/nvme1n1p1 ext4   rw,relatime,data=ordered
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Can reboot instance now to check mount works properly now.

Also, install all updates:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# apt update && apt -y upgrade && reboot
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

DNS

Create a domain name to be used:

The host’s set up

Let’s Encrypt

Install client:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# apt install -y git
root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# git clone https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt /opt/letsencrypt
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Get a certificate using standalone authenticator:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# /opt/letsencrypt/letsencrypt-auto certonly -d dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua

Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log

How would you like to authenticate with the ACME CA?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1: Spin up a temporary webserver (standalone)

2: Place files in webroot directory (webroot)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 1
Plugins selected: Authenticator standalone, Installer None

Enter email address (used for urgent renewal and security notices) (Enter 'c' to
cancel): admin@example.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server at
https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(A)gree/(C)ancel: A
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Would you be willing to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit
organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about our work
encrypting the web, EFF news, campaigns, and ways to support digital freedom.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Y)es/(N)o: N

Obtaining a new certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua
Waiting for verification...
Cleaning up challenges

IMPORTANT NOTES:

- Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
/etc/letsencrypt/live/dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua/fullchain.pem
Your key file has been saved at:
/etc/letsencrypt/live/dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua/privkey.pem
...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

NGINX

Install NGINX:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# apt -y install nginx
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Generate a key for the SSL:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# openssl dhparam -out /etc/nginx/dhparams.pem 2048
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Add a virtual host’s config – /etc/nginx/conf.d/dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua.conf:

server {

    listen 80;

    server_name dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua;

    # Lets Encrypt Webroot
    location ~ /.well-known {
        root /var/www/html;
        allow all;
    }

    location / {

        # office1
        allow 194.***.***.24/29;
        # office2
        allow 91.***.***.78/32;
        # arseny home
        allow 188.***.***.48/32;
        deny  all;

        return 301 https://dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua;
    }
}
server {
    listen       443 ssl;
    server_name  dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua;
    root /var/www/html;
    access_log  /var/log/nginx/dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua-access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua-error.log warn;

    # office1
    allow 194.***.***.24/29;
    # office2
    allow 91.***.***.78/32;
    # arseny home
    allow 188.***.***.48/32;
    deny  all;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua/privkey.pem;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/dhparams.pem;
    ssl_ciphers "EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256+EECDH:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256+EDH:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA:AES128-SHA:DES-CBC3-SHA:HIGH:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!MD5:!PSK:!RC4";
    ssl_session_timeout 1d;
    ssl_stapling on;
    ssl_stapling_verify on;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8000/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        client_max_body_size 0;
        add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload";
        add_header Referrer-Policy "same-origin";
    }
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Check its syntax and reload configs:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# nginx  -t && systemctl reload nginx
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Check:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# curl -vL dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua
...

* Connected to dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua (34.240.14.78) port 80 (#0)
< HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
...
< Location: https://dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua
...
curl: (7) Failed to connect to dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua port 443: Connection timed out
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

All good.

Connection timed out – as we have no backend running yet.

Docker and Docker Compose

To run Bitwarden need to have Docker and Docker Compose – install them.

Docker:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# curl -L get.docker.com | bash
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Check:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# docker -v
Docker version 18.09.5, build e8ff056dbc
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Add the admin user to the docker group:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# usermod -aG docker admin
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Install Docker Compose:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.24.0/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# docker-compose -v
docker-compose version 1.24.0, build 0aa59064
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Bitwarden installation

Go to the bitwarden.com/host and get keys:

Each Bitwarden needs to have own set of those keys.

Download installation, configuration, and management script:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/home/admin# cd /bitwarden/
root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# curl -s -o bitwarden.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitwarden/core/master/scripts/bitwarden.sh
root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# chmod +x bitwarden.sh
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

This script will download files from the https://github.com/bitwarden/server repository and then will call the https://github.com/bitwarden/server/blob/master/scripts/run.sh script with the install option.

All options for the bitwarden.sh:

| Command | Description |
| --- | --- |
| install | Start the installer. |
| start | Start all containers. |
| restart | Restart all containers (same as start). |
| stop | Stop all containers. |
| updatedb | Update/initialize the database. |
| update | Update all containers and the database. |
| updateself | Update this main script. |
| rebuild | Rebuild generated installation assets from `config.yml`. |
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Start installation:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# ./bitwarden.sh install
...

(!) Enter the domain name for your Bitwarden instance (ex. bitwarden.company.com): dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua

(!) Do you want to use Let's Encrypt to generate a free SSL certificate? (y/n): n

1.30.1: Pulling from bitwarden/setup
...
Status: Downloaded newer image for bitwarden/setup:1.30.1
...
(!) Enter your installation id (get at https://bitwarden.com/host): 46ec2f0b-\*\*\*-\*\*\*-aa3f00b8ab41
(!) Enter your installation key: OJ0\*\*\*fDD
(!) Do you have a SSL certificate to use? (y/n): y
...
(!) Is this a trusted SSL certificate (requires ca.crt, see docs)? (y/n): y
Generating key for IdentityServer.
Generating a RSA private key
...
writing new private key to 'identity.key'
-----
Building nginx config.
Building docker environment files.
Building docker environment override files.
Building FIDO U2F app id.
Building docker-compose.yml.
Installation complete
...

Next steps, run:

`./bitwarden.sh start`
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Bitwarden configuration

The script will save all Bitwarden’s data to the bwdata directory:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# ll
total 24
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root   root     2535 Apr 30 11:07 bitwarden.sh
drwxr-xr-x 11 nobody nogroup  4096 Apr 30 11:13 bwdata

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# ll bwdata/
total 40
drwxr-xr-x 2 nobody nogroup 4096 Apr 30 11:10 ca-certificates
-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody nogroup 3323 Apr 30 11:13 config.yml
drwxr-xr-x 2 nobody nogroup 4096 Apr 30 11:13 docker
drwxr-xr-x 2 nobody nogroup 4096 Apr 30 11:13 env
drwxr-xr-x 2 nobody nogroup 4096 Apr 30 11:13 identity
drwxr-xr-x 2 nobody nogroup 4096 Apr 30 11:10 letsencrypt
drwxr-xr-x 2 nobody nogroup 4096 Apr 30 11:13 nginx
drwxr-xr-x 2 nobody nogroup 4096 Apr 30 11:10 scripts
drwxr-xr-x 3 nobody nogroup 4096 Apr 30 11:13 ssl
drwxr-xr-x 2 nobody nogroup 4096 Apr 30 11:13 web
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The main configuration file is the bwdata/config.yml.

Also, in the ./bwdata/env/global.override.env file additional variables can be set, will check them a bit later.

Docker Compose stack will be started using the ./bwdata/docker/docker-compose.yml file:

version: '3'
services:
  mssql:
    image: bitwarden/mssql:1.30.1
    container_name: bitwarden-mssql
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - ../mssql/data:/var/opt/mssql/data
      - ../logs/mssql:/var/opt/mssql/log
      - ../mssql/backups:/etc/bitwarden/mssql/backups
    env_file:
      - mssql.env
      - ../env/uid.env
      - ../env/mssql.override.env
  web:
    image: bitwarden/web:2.10.0
    container_name: bitwarden-web
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - ../web:/etc/bitwarden/web
    env_file:
      - global.env
      - ../env/uid.env
...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Update the config.yml file – disable SSL as we have own NGINX with SSL and change HTTP and HTTPS ports:

...
# Docker compose file port mapping for HTTP. Leave empty to remove the port mapping.
# Learn more: https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/#ports
http_port: 8000
# Docker compose file port mapping for HTTPS. Leave empty to remove the port mapping.
# Learn more: https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/#ports
https_port: 8001
...
# Configure Nginx for SSL.
ssl: false
...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Update applications configs:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# ./bitwarden.sh rebuild
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Start Bitwarden:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# ./bitwarden.sh start
...
Bitwarden is up and running!
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Check in a browser:

Check containers:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# docker ps

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                            COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                                                    NAMES

b196ee0f81ff        bitwarden/nginx:1.30.1           "/entrypoint.sh"    About an hour ago   Up About an hour    80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:5178->8080/tcp, 0.0.0.0:5179->8443/tcp   bitwarden-nginx

ef03f591491d        bitwarden/admin:1.30.1           "/entrypoint.sh"    About an hour ago   Up About an hour    5000/tcp                                                 bitwarden-admin

d4fa88921cce        bitwarden/api:1.30.1             "/entrypoint.sh"    About an hour ago   Up About an hour    5000/tcp                                                 bitwarden-api

408c5f0bd370        bitwarden/notifications:1.30.1   "/entrypoint.sh"    About an hour ago   Up About an hour    5000/tcp                                                 bitwarden-notifications

9bec10bc09d8        bitwarden/icons:1.30.1           "/entrypoint.sh"    About an hour ago   Up About an hour    5000/tcp                                                 bitwarden-icons

f87789cc4da4        bitwarden/mssql:1.30.1           "/entrypoint.sh"    About an hour ago   Up About an hour    1433/tcp                                                 bitwarden-mssql

143370f979c5        bitwarden/web:2.10.0             "/entrypoint.sh"    About an hour ago   Up About an hour    5000/tcp                                                 bitwarden-web

acdc220a7c29        bitwarden/identity:1.30.1        "/entrypoint.sh"    About an hour ago   Up About an hour    5000/tcp                                                 bitwarden-identity

925d047b6321        bitwarden/attachments:1.30.1     "/entrypoint.sh"    About an hour ago   Up About an hour    5000/tcp                                                 bitwarden-attachments
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

In those containers, Bitwarden will mount directories from the host, for example mssql:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# docker inspect bitwarden-mssql | jq .[].Mounts
[
{
  "Type": "bind",
  "Source": "/bitwarden/bwdata/logs/mssql",
  "Destination": "/var/opt/mssql/log",
  "Mode": "rw",
  "RW": true,
  "Propagation": "rprivate"
},
{
  "Type": "bind",
  "Source": "/bitwarden/bwdata/mssql/data",
  "Destination": "/var/opt/mssql/data",
  "Mode": "rw",
  "RW": true,
  "Propagation": "rprivate"
},
{
  "Type": "bind",
  "Source": "/bitwarden/bwdata/mssql/backups",
  "Destination": "/etc/bitwarden/mssql/backups",
  "Mode": "rw",
  "RW": true,
  "Propagation": "rprivate"
}
]
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Thus for a backup will be enough just to store the bwdata catalog.

Email configuration

Email settings are set in the bwdata/env/global.override.env file.

We will use AWS SES, update variables:

...
globalSettings__mail__replyToEmail=no-reply@example.com
globalSettings__mail__smtp__host=email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
globalSettings__mail__smtp__port=587
globalSettings__mail__smtp__ssl=false
globalSettings__mail__smtp__username=AKI***MJI
globalSettings__mail__smtp__password=BKR***z2G
...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Restart Bitwarden (rebuild needs to be done only after changes in the config.yml):

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# ./bitwarden.sh restart
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

In case of email sending problems – check logs in the bwdata/logs/api/Api/ directory or from the bitwarden-api container

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# docker logs -f bitwarden-api
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Registration in the Bitwarden

Now you can register in your Bitwarden installation.

Click on the Create account:

Click Confirm.

Bitwarden Admin and users

Add an administrator mailbox to the bwdata/env/global.override.env file in the adminSettings__admins= field.

Note, that the documentation says:

These admin email addresses do not need to be registered with an account on your Bitwarden installation

After logging in with this mailbox – you’ll get an email with a link to proceed authorization to the admin page. This link will be valid for 15 minutes:

...
adminSettings__admins=admin@example.com,anotheradmin@example.com
...
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Restart service:

root@ip-172-31-36-249:/bitwarden# ./bitwarden.sh restart
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

And go to the https://dev.bitwarden.setevoy.org.ua/admin page:

Log in with the mailbox specified in the adminSettings__admins, get an email, go by the link:

Users settings

Log in using common Log In form and will see usual userspace:

In the Tools you can import data from various passwords managers like KeePass:

Adding passwords manually:

Getting a password:

Working with Bitwarden

Chrome plugin

Install Chrome extension from the Chrome webstore:

Click on the Settings:

Set your server’s URL:

Log in:

And get all your passwords directly from a browser:

Also, it will suggest storing passwords during logins as a usual passwords manager:

Linux desktop

I guess it has clients for any Linux-based systems

In Arch Linux can be installed from AUR:

$ yaourt -S bitwarden-bin
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

And log in in the same way as in the Chrome extension:

Import from KeePass

Let’s check how import is working

In your KeePass export data to an XML file:

Then go to the Bitwarden – Tools > Import data:

Ready – even with directories structure:

Export can be done in the same way – you can upload data from Bitwarden in a JSON or CSV file and the CSV can be imported to a local KeePass. Such an additional backup.

Keep in mind that the exported file will have all passwords unencrypted.

Multi-factor authorization

MFA can be configured in My account – Two-step Login, everything in a standard way here:

Backuping and restoring Bitwarden storage

Nobody wants to lose an organization’s all passwords so let’s check how backup and restore will works.

As we have /bitwarden mounted from a dedicated EBS volume then it can be daily snapshotted by AWS Data Lifecycle Manager and then in case of problems – a new volume can be created and mounted to a new EC2 instance with a new Bitwarden installation.

So steps to check are, quickly:

  1. create a snapshot manually
  2. create a new EBS using this snapshot
  3. start a new ЕС2
  4. attach this EBS and mount it to the /bitwarden
  5. obtain a Let’s Encrypt Certificate
  6. install NGINX, set up a virtual host
  7. install Docker, Docker Compose
  8. if a domain was changed – update /bitwarden/bwdata/config.yml, change the url parameter
  9. run ./bitwarden.sh rebuild
  10. run ./bitwarden.sh start
  11. …
  12. Profit!

That’s all for now.

When will get a trial license – will play with user’s and roles.

Similar posts

Top comments (0)

Read next

ldrscke profile image

Trusted publishing ‐ It has never been easier to publish your python packages

Christian Ledermann -

advdebug profile image

AntiCrack-DotNet: Advanced Methods to prevent cracking.

AdvDebug -

dumboprogrammer profile image

Mseal in Linux: An un-hackable solution?

Tawhid -

trixsec profile image

Part 7: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Series - XSS Payloads and Advanced Techniques

Trix Cyrus -