Hi everyone. I got interested in BitWarden after my wife started using it. I get 1Password from work, but I’d rather my password vault not be tied to my employment status, and since Bitwarden allows self hosting and I have a server I decided to give it a try.
I’m not super savvy on webhosting though, so I’m wondering: Can I set it up so that the apps can connect to my Bitwarden instance, but not have the webpage or really anything on ports 80 or 443? I already have a static IP and DNS entries for my server, but so far I just use it for Plex and Minecraft, so I don’t want to have to learn, setup and secure a webserver.
Hello @Clayton615 - welcome to the Bitwarden community.
Unfortunately, the main interface for Bitwarden is web-based, so you can’t setup or administer an account without it.
Since Bitwarden is a zero-knowledge system and it is free, have you considered just using the Bitwarden servers in the cloud instead? Zero-knowledge means that nobody at Bitwarden can access your data, since your encryption keys and master password are not stored in the cloud, and it also means that if Bitwarden servers were ever breached, your data is always encrypted and unusable to a hacker.
Personally, I believe it is less risky to allow the security professionals to host and store my data safely than it is for me to try to do it, and I have extensive experience managing and deploying a variety of web- and cloud services. Something to consider, perhaps, if you haven’t already.
Hey, thanks a lot. I’m gonna forge blindly ahead because it’s what I do, but you’re probably right. Since the data is zero-knowledge, wouldn’t that apply to the stuff stored on a local server as well? In effect, if I’m dumb and get owned, they’d still need my encryption keys and master password or else spend a few hundred years with hash cat to get my netflix password? I joke, but I’ve always been stubborn about doing things myself, my way, and so far it’s always been really good for me.