@bw-admin where is this? I’ve been waiting for this feature for so long and I can’t switch to BW without it.
Hey @onvrb thanks for checking in! The team has been working on the 2022 roadmap see here, with auto-type being in the research phase. New information will be posted here once it becomes available.
MacOS has added the ability to create Password Autofill extensions that work system-wide. This allows you to use Bitwarden to auto-fill passwords into desktop apps as well as the Safari browser. Creating a MacOS extension will add functionality and remove the need for a Safari extension.
Feature function
- What will this feature do differently? Allow Bitwarden Desktop to autofill passwords in other apps besides browsers.
- What benefits will this feature bring? For MacOS users, it will allow password autofill across the desktop.
- Remember to add a tag for each client application that will be affected
Related topics + references
- Are there any related topics that may help explain the need and function of this feature?
Not that I have seen - Are there any references to this feature or function on other platforms that may be helpful?
This is a MacOS only feature.
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The question is how many of these assumed 20 people are developers?
In a company I worked for, one guy has written a whole OS including a file system and the freaking TCP stack with LCD driver, sensor measurement, data logging and so much more alone. He also did most of the hardware design. All of this in less than half the time, this feature request is standing.
Considering the time span this request is open (AND on the ‘radar’) and if just one slow guy was working on it full time, this should be finished or the guy fired. It is not like this is just a voluntary FOSS project without manpower. It is a business with employees.
The feature is just in the research phase now. There aren’t that much months left.
Are you sure, you can keep this promise?
My, how time flies! @bw-admin would know best currently, but I am sure the team at Bitwarden is hard at work on lots of very helpful things!
True… it’s crazy.
Sure they are, it is just shocking how long some things take.
Being a developer (and leading teams), I actually know how difficult it is to plan and implement things. I just wonder how big the core dev team is, as there seem to be very little progress on Bitwarden in the last years since the team grow.
Maybe they are just on to things for business users and don’t care for paying individuals. I don’t know as the companies I’m working for were blocked by missing features and opted to not use Bitwarden at the moment. Which is really sad, imho.
I do have some ideas how to implement this feature, but I’m not sure it would be upstreamed.
The Bitwarden Team should consider doing a bounty program for things they want implemented, but do not have interest (or time) in implementing it. This would speedup progress dramatically, parts of the community are very tech savvy.
Hey @Root-Core, thanks for checking in and for the feedback! The desktop auto-type feature request is currently in the ‘ongoing research’ section of the roadmap, and not included in the list of 2022 deliverables.
Regarding product focus, while this feature has not been implemented (while the team researches and monitors possible cross-platform security standards), the roadmap is divided into multiple categories, with a continued emphasis on vault experience and community.
So this feature will not be developed in 2022?
Hey @keenwon, it’s currently listed on the roadmap under ‘ongoing research’, and not currently included in the list of 2022 deliverables. The team is closely researching cross-platform security standards in this area.
As a paying business (and reseller) I’d still easily put this feature as our top priority. Some applications (e.g. rdp and other remote software when logging onto machines) are simply put absolutely unusable.
“Absolutely unusable”? Perhaps you have forgotten that copy-and-paste always works, which is really just “slightly inconvenient” to others.
If this feature can’t be implemented securely, personally I would rather have slightly inconvenient.
No, no it simply does not.
Try rdp with a Windows server, you simply cannot paste, try screenconnect with a remote windows logon/uac screen and you simply cannot paste (most remote software won’t allow you to).
I run headless servers on Windows, Linux, and MacOS boxes, and I just tried new RDP, XRDP, and VNC/screen sharing sessions to each OS. Copy and paste worked just fine for me to send my password. I even did a screen share on to MacOS machine to a Windows box and that worked. Sorry, I just don’t see the issue - I have not experienced the behaviour you speak of.
Can we schedule a support call next week? I’ll make a clean win10 install on vmware and we’ll check out the issues.
This is not true. It does not always work. I had some customers (automotive), where you absolutely can not copy or paste anything. You might even have to use several layers of VPNs, tunnels and remote desktop solutions. Combined with high delays, it is really not fun.
Do not assume your use case equals everyone else’s.
Especially big (huge) corporations will make you jump through hoops and hinder you where they can in order protect their intellectual property. Even if it is just some demo server. (Security through obscurity…)
There are workarounds… but it is not that easy.
This is one reason why a big IT support company - working for an even bigger, Bavarian car manufacturer - is not using Bitwarden.
@bw-admin As I said, the implementation shouldn’t be too much of a concern as you are using Electron on the desktop which can use native addons. You should have a look at the cross platform implementation of KeePassXC’s AutoType feature, which is published under a dual license of GPLv2 / GPLv3. This should be compatible with Bitwarden’s license model. It is also quiet solid and tested by many people on different platforms. It should be possible to port it into a node addon and finally use it in electron.
Given how complex cross platform support of such a feature can get, this is a fairly good starting point. Your opinion might differ though.
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It also don‘t work when you have to use iDrac console, ILO console, VMware console and so on. There are many servers that are not reachable through LAN for security reasons and there is no way to copy a password. Only an autotype feature would help.
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Autofill in desktop app is an important feature to add.
Just one example, Cryptomator which is also a FOSS tool which should be used by anyone using Bitwarden, it requires input of password into a desktop app:
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