It would help user’s operational security a great deal for all BW clients to have a way to CLEAR the currently displayed entry. The desktop client currently retains the current entry and continues to display it after minimizing or entering something else in the search box and has no timeout.
The only way to “clear” the displayed entry is to display some other entry.
For that reason, in the absence of a feature to automatically clear the displayed entry (much like the vault timeout locks the app), there should be some method in the UI to clear the current entry. Alas, only “add”, “edit”, and “delete” buttons are available.
Not even clearing the search bar clears the displayed entry. Even entering a search value when there are no results fails to clear the previous item displayed.
However, there is a workaround. Create an entry named “~~BLANK ENTRY TO CLEAR SCREEN”. That will always sort to the top of the list, and you can select it for display, and clear the previous entry from being displayed.
This should have been built into the UI from the start.
- Clearing the search? Clear the displayed entry.
- Entering anything in the search (i.e. changing the search)? Clear the displayed entry.
- Vault timeout locks the vault? Clear the displayed entry. You can get it back by selecting the item again from the vault.
- Feeling like someone is shoulder surfing? Click something (e.g. clear the search per first scenario or a “Clear Entry” button) to clear the displayed entry.
- Sensing a pattern here?
Currently, there is NO ability to clear the currently displayed entry to manually intervene and prevent display of credentials (like MEMO field content specifically, which is often used to store additional authentication details - backup codes, security questions/answers, Account IDs, etc.
Please can we have a better way to securely use BitWarden on the desktop than a workaround/hack?