Bitwarden User Guide
May 16, 2024
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Notice: This article is intended for employees with Bitwarden accounts. Contains instructions on how to use Bitwarden and the Following:
- What is Bitwarden?
- Bitwarden lets you store your online information such as Wi-Fi passwords, passport/insurance details, membership contracts, and credit card information. It’s also great for online shopping with its customizable auto-fill option and built-in password generator, which creates long, randomized passwords to deter hackers. It primarily functions as a web browser extension, despite having standalone apps for both Mac OS X and Windows.
- How it Works
- The main component of Bitwarden's functionality is the Master Password. Having a vault secured with a single password makes life much easier compared to having to remember numerous passwords. The Master Password is the key to the Bitwarden Vault, where all the other passwords, as well as other data and information of your choosing, are housed.
- Bitwarden Browser Extension
- Your Chrome browser should already have the Bitwarden Extension and you'll be able to locate it near the top right corner of the screen within extensions.
- If your Chrome doesn't have the extension feel free to download the extension here!
- When a user creates their Bitwarden account they also create a master password. The master password is used to authenticate into the Bitwarden account through the browser extension or by logging in to www.Bitwarden.com. A master password should be long and unique, with a mix of character types – it directly impacts the overall security of the data as other encryption keys are generated from this password.
- The master password should never be used as a password for any other website or app. Even a variation of it should never be used for any other account. For example, a breach on another website could put a Bitwarden account at risk if a user re-uses their master password.
- This is the most important password you will create, spend some time creating it!
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We recommend using the following best practices when creating your Master Password:
- Use a minimum of 12 characters, but the lengthier the better
- Use upper case, lower case, numeric, and special character values
- Make it pronounceable and memorable, but not easily guessed (e.g., a passphrase)
- Make sure that it is unique only to you
- Never use personal information
- A good example is: Bruno8!my2woolsox (DO NOT USE THIS EXAMPLE)
- Open the Bitwarden web vault by doing either of the following
- Click on the Bitwarden icon in your web browser > Settings > Tools > Bitwarden web vault
- Go to https://vault.bitwarden.com/#/login and login with your email and master password
- Select Settings in the left navigation
- Under the Settings tab select Security
- Type your current password and your new password in the boxes shown here. Refer to the password recommendations listed above.
- Click Change Master Password
- Log back in using your new master password
- These are the passwords for the sites that are saved in your Bitwarden Vault.
- When the Bitwarden extension is logged in:
- Bitwarden will prompt to save passwords created for accounts making it easy to store them.
- Bitwarden will autofill the login information of a site that has been saved.
- How to add sites:
- Create the most secure and random passwords by using our built-in password generator for a site, then store those sites in your Bitwarden Vault. It is recommended to use generated passwords as much as possible as a security best practice.
- Navigate to a website for which you'd like to generate a new secure password. Or, if you want to change the password for a site with one that is generated by Bitwarden, log in to your desired site and access your account's login settings
Generate a secure password by doing any of the following:
| To use this: | Do this: |
|---|---|
| Using the web browser extension |
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| From within your Vault |
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Here is a quick video for further guidance:
- If you forget your Master Password the best way to recover your account is to email the IT helpdesk at [email protected] to reset your Master Password.
- If an attacker were to discover a user’s Master Password, it’s unlikely that they would also have access to a valid multifactor token, therefore minimizing the chance that they would be able to gain access to the user’s account.
- Instructions on how to set-up MFA with the Authenticator app in Bitwarden can be found here.
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Bitwarden gives you the ability to share passwords with other users using a feature called "Send".
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If you are sharing a password please create it using the Password Generator mentioned above and we recommend to avoid sharing passwords if at all possible.
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Here is a video with an in-depth tour of the Sharing Center:
