Very interesting…..
I don’t think this represents a risk to my laptop itself or the data stored on it, given that “has access to a local admin account” already puts the laptop itself in game-over territory. However it seems like a substantial risk to lateral-movement (using a compromised device to log into other devices). With Bitwarden (versions <= 2025.08.0), this could happen by gaining access to Windows Credential manager and therefore the encryption key to my Bitwarden vault.
Keeping my focus on Bitwarden, I have a few initial observations:
-
Bitwarden would be well served to prioritize “Unlock with Device”, in addition to the existing “Login with Device” so that I can use my phone’s biometrics in lieu of Hello.
-
This likely will delay any efforts to fix “ Unable to unlock Bitwarden desktop app on app start using Windows Hello ".
-
Bitwarden had some extremely lucky foresight in releasing 2025.08.0. P.R. wise, they might well be ahead of their peers on this one.
-
It will be interesting to see how Bitwarden, other password managers, and Microsoft react to this. None of them are having a good day.