I use Duo Security to dial my Skype number whenever I need to authenticate MFA. The problem is that I have to click away from the extension in order to answer the call and click a number on the dialpad.
If I could open the login screen in a new tab instead of having the drop-down list, that would make the usability on my desktop easier. I do use my Alexa device to press a button via voice during the day, but if it’s late at night, I don’t want to have to authenticate using Alexa.
What browser do you use?
Chrome and Firefox
In Chrome, try bookmarking the following URI:
chrome-extension://nngceckbapebfimnlniiiahkandclblb/popup/index.html?uilocation=popout#/home
In FireFox, something like the following can be opened in a new tab (with a bookmark):
moz-extension://1dd7aa3a-7ec0-4f45-b048-f405ac2932ca/popup/index.html#/home
(however, the exact code for the browser extension may be different in your case — if the above doesn’t work, let me know, and I can help you find the right code).
Furthermore, in FireFox, you can configure Bitwarden to open in the side bar, which may also solve your problem.
If the desktop app could share its login state between browser extensions, it would solve this problem.
The URI worked for Chrome, but our Firefox extensions might use a different ID because that one didn’t work.
For Firefox, log out of the browser extension, and then open the browser extension to the login page. Right-click in the browser extension viewport and select “View Page Source”. Look in the address bar of the tab that is showing the source code: the URI should look like this:
view-source:moz-extension://xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/popup/index.html#/home
(where xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx is the code for your browser extension).
In the above URI, all you have to do is to delete the first 12 characters (view-source:), and the remainder is the URI that you need to bookmark.
Also, have you tried the Firefox Side Bar feature? If you right-click the toolbar and select “Customize Toolbar”, you can click-and-drag the sidebar icon to the toolbar, which will allow you to conveniently open and close the side bar as needed. Then you’ll be able to keep the Bitwarden login screen open in the sidebar while interacting with the Skype browser tab.
As a future note, logging out isn’t necessary. Click on the extension and right-click on an empty space to bring up the context menu. For Firefox, you’ll see an option that says View page source (for Chrome, select Inspect).
Hopefully, an official solution will be implemented soon. Copying and pasting long, alphanumeric strings is rather clunky.
I had suggested logging out because you wanted the URI for the browser extension’s login page. Using the URI for one of the other pages (e.g., the unlock screen or the Tab view of the unlocked extension) will also work, because you will be redirected to the login screen if your Bitwarden extension is logged out when you use the bookmark. Nonetheless, I think that bookmarking the login screen directly is cleaner; if you’ve copied the URI from one of the other extension pages, you cold also manually edit the URI so that it ends with #/home (instead of #/lock or #/tabs/current).
Being able to login through a separate tab is extremely helpful. In Firefox, I logged out and used the page source viewer to grab the extension address.
When my Duo Security prompt came up, I was given the option to either get a call or receive a text message. I requested new codes and after about five seconds, I got a toast notification via Skype on my desktop. Because I had to find the specific code that it wanted, requesting a new code list would normally be impossible, since I have to click away to interact with Skype.
I noticed that my anxiety level went away for the most part. No worries about menus disappearing. Please Bitwarden Team, if you see this, consider hiring some disabled people to assist with QA testing!
So many products on the market have strict, time-based MFA prompts. While that’s great for security, it can be a barrier for physically or mentally impaired people. At the end of the day, you don’t want users to be frustrated to the point of not using a second factor.