Error Code 6 - "Unusual Network Traffic"

We’ve been finally hit by the Error Code 6 issue “An error has occured. Traffic from your network looks unusual. Connect to a different network or try again later. [Error Code 6]”. Users at our office are starting to encounter this an unable to access their vaults.

Clearly your anti-DDoS system is malfunctioning, and Bitwarden is currently casting blame on users by suggesting there’s something wrong with the network they’re attached to. Reddit is exploding with reports of the issue:

When will we get a meaningful statement from Bitwarden on this issue? Or better yet, a resolution?

Hey there, is the team using a VPN? Shared network traffic can get flagged as unusual, you can see more here: Unusual Internet Traffic | Bitwarden Help Center

For official support, contact the team directly any time at Get in Touch | Bitwarden

No, they’re on our office network. Each user has their own public IP address (we’re an ISP/NSP). Each device is monitored so very unlikely there’s any abuse coming from that IP address as it’s directly assigned to one device. I’ve already submitted a support request but have yet to receive a response.

Thanks Gary, you should get an automated response back, to confirm receipt of the ticket.

To clarify, we have received the autoresponder but no ticket # or response from a live human.

Feel free to DM the email you use with your Bitwarden account and I can follow up with the team :+1:

Changing program behaviors and/or adding new features are high-risk endeavors. Safely implementing new/changed code requires new and complex tools. The most important of these is an automated regression-test tool to ensure that the new features don’t break the old code. If you don’t have a comprehensive suite of regression tests sufficient to verify the correct functioning of the current code, then adding to or changing that code will inevitably put its functionality at risk. For example (as detailed below), BitWarden has suddenly started locking me out of my vault.

I have been using BitWarden (via a FireFox app on my PC) since 2019, and it has always
allowed me to access my vault if I enter the correct password. However, BitWarden has
suddenly started locking me out because “traffic from your [my] network looks unusual”.

High-end users often deploy a Virtual Private Network (aka. a VPN) for privacy/security
reasons. VPN apps encrypt/decrypt a user’s outgoing/incoming data (which prevents their
ISP from spying on them). It vectors the resultant data packets thru a user-selected VPN
server. The VPN server decrypts/encrypts the incoming/outgoing data. And it uses a new,
server-assigned IP address to transfer that data to/from the user’s intended destination.
Targeted websites see only the server-assigned IP addresses (which makes VPN users
difficult to spy on). The VPN servers pull these addresses from a pool of IP addresses.
They typically assign multiple users to each address.

People use VPNs for different reasons. Certainly all competent cyber-criminals use VPNs,
but not all VPN users are cyber-criminals. Billions of people in Russia, China, Iraq,
Iran, and India – indeed, freedom lovers the world over – rely on VPNs to safely access
government-banned websites. Other folks merely dislike the idea of “sharing” their private
affairs with online corporate stalkers (viz. google, Microsoft, etcetera).

Banning VPN users is little more than a half measure. If BitWarden’s programmers
truly want to provide improved protection against key loggers, then they should give users the
option to enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). But many, perhaps most, users will find
2FA to be more intrusive than needful. I rely on the following protections instead:

(1) Purchase notifications

  My bank sends me an email whenever it debits my account. Moreover, it requires                    
  special authorization for any especially large or unusual purchases.                              

(2) A good password manager

  I like BitWarden. Its security-critical code is open source and has been audited by               
  experts. It features a highly competent wildcard-search capability. Also, its                     
  auto-generated passwords are unbreakable on a competently designed system. I disable              
  its auto-update option in FireFox to prevent its behaviors from changing without warning                  
  (but they did anyway!). I use a stong password.                                                   

(3) An anti-malware utility

  I run a competent anti-malware app.                                                               

(4) A good firewall

  I have configured my firewall to block all apps that don't have a clear and ongoing               
  need for internet access.                                                                         

(5) Full-system backups

  I revert to my most recent full-system backup if my system so much as burps.                      

(6) Virus Total

  I check all downloaded apps with Virus Total before running them.                                 
  I avoid auto-updating apps like the plague (except for my anti-malware app).

Sorry to bump this, but I’m getting the same error. I’m on my home network using firefox, no VPN, no Tor, no proxies. I don’t have any malware that I know of. I’ve also tried on cell data, and the issue persists.

Home ISP: Comcast
Mobile Carrier: Verizon

Were hit with same issue half hour ago.

I created bitwarden account today and I click on add entry and fill details when press on save button the error comes than i reinstall the app and now error come when is entered password. The popup shows up “An Occurred error”
No vpn and am on android

Looks like this should be resolved, please follow the steps here if you are still experiencing the issue: Unusual Internet Traffic | Bitwarden Help Center

Changing a password for a critical site and receiving the message “An error has occurred. Traffic from your network looks unusual. Connect to a different network or try again later. Error Code 2”

Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed on my network, nor my WAN (ISP).

After several unsuccessful attempts to save my password, I managed to save it by entering a random message consisting of characters like “&^*SUDF” in the “Notes” section for the site on the app, without the new password. Then, I saved and closed the container and tried to edit the password again, which was successful. Later, I removed the “&^*SUDF” message from the site’s “Notes” section and closed the container. I confirmed that the container information was updated and was able to successfully log into the site.

Argon2
Client Version: 2023.2.0

It hasn’t been resolved, non-enterprise customer here being hit with these error today (and Yes I DID EVERYTHING THE HELP PAGE SAYS).

Hey Carlos, please keep in mind this is a community supported space with light staff involvement, as the support page indicates, please contact the official support team at the link provided.

I am a “premium” customer and was hit with this issue today. Since I was home and connected to my home network, I managed to resolve it with a router restart. I wasn’t connected through a VPN either. I shudder to think what would have happened, had I been traveling and did not have the ability to change my IP address at will… this is unacceptable and I would be looking at alternatives shortly.

Found the detailed article on Bitwarden Error Code 6. check if this help

i’ve now also been hit by this error and it seems to be very strange to me.

I use the same wifi for my desktop, my mobile and my tablet. So all these devices use the same network with the same IP-address to the outside.
From my mobile and my tablet as well as from the firefox-plugin for bitwarden I can connect to my Bitwarden Vault without any issues.

But when I try to use the desktop application, then I get this error about the unusual traffic. But the issue cannot be, that my IP is blocked for unusual traffic as all the other devices/application can connect using this IP.
So what is going on here?

Also got this issue now. Even switching to tethering with my phone I get the same problem. I moved countries. Could that be the reason? I haven’t had this issue before. Pretty scary and annoying to be locked out of your vault.

Does this issue resolve itself after a while?

@ivor Welcome to the forum!

Please follow the advice provided here:

I observed the same behaviour as you did. Login via Web-App worked but the MacOS desktop app threw that error (code 6).

turns out the app was pretty out of date (did not auto update even though it was installed via appstore).
Updated to 2024.2.0 and now i can login again