zxcvbn VS Bitwarden

Lightweight is an understatement here.

A client's project (with not necessarily technical customers) has had pretty reasonable success using the Dropbox originated library[1] for this, `zxcvbn`[2], on both frontend via js (for "instant" feedback) and on the backend via php (to enforce the requirements when writing password hashes to the database)

1: https://dropbox.tech/security/zxcvbn-realistic-password-stre...

2: https://github.com/dropbox/zxcvbn

use zxcvbn to check your password strength more thoroughly

source if anyone wants the whole list https://github.com/dropbox/zxcvbn/blob/master/data/passwords.txt

Password strength is evaluated based on the zxcvbn library.

In contrast, let's consider the password "zxcvbn214". How might we assign an entropy to this password? Is it 369? Or 266 * 103? Anyone familiar with a QWERTY keyboard or Dropbox's password strength estimator knows that "zxcvbn" is hardly a random sequence of letters. This same principle applies to "l33t" speak, e.g. replacing all "e"s with 3s and "a"s with 4s. These strategies may "trick" simple entropy calculations into estimating a high entropy, but it won't trick sophisticated attackers. This leads to strength over-estimation, which is, I argue, the worst thing we can do in this context.

> except for ZXCVBN

You mean the Low-Budget Password Strength Estimator?

https://github.com/dropbox/zxcvbn

Yeah, that name is totally legit.

For any part of the password that the zxcvbn cannot match to a known pattern, it uses a brute-force cardinality of 10, i.e., it estimates that the number of guesses required to crack a password or password segment of length N is equal to 10N (equivalent to the number of guesses required to exhaust all possibilities if your password consisted only of numbers).

We took a similar approach to passphrase stretching in EnvKey[1] v1 (EnvKey is a secrets manager, not a passwords manager, but uses end-to-end encryption in a similar way). We used PBKDF2 with iterations set a bit higher than the currently recommended levels, as well as Dropbox's zxcvbn lib to try to identify and block weak passphrases.

Ultimately, I think it's just not good enough. Even if you're updating iteration counts automatically (which is clearly not a safe assumption, and to be fair not something we did in EnvKey v1 either), and even with safeguards against weak passphrases, using human-generated passphrases as a single line of defense is just fundamentally weak.

That's why in EnvKey v2, we switched to primarily using high entropy device-based keys--a lot like SSH private keys, except that on Mac and Windows the keys get stored in the OS keychain rather than in the file system. Also like SSH, a passphrases can optionally be added on top.

The downside (or upside, depending how you look at it) is that new devices must be specifically granted access. You can't just log in and decrypt on a new device with only your passphrase. But the security is much stronger, and you also avoid all this song and dance around key stretching iterations.

1 - https://github.com/envkey/envkey

2 - https://github.com/dropbox/zxcvbn

For passwords and 2FA I use Bitwarden in combination with a self-hosted Vaultwarden service (for imcreased security and use of pro features for free).

First it's good to use a password manager, however it's not a good idea to use the one built into your browser. I would suggest switching to BitWarden or similar (not LastPass).

I just noticed today when relogging in on Bitwarden (I couldn't sync my vault) that it said "Logged in as [email] on __$2__" instead of "Logged in as [email] on bitwarden.com". I don't know why or how that happened, and I have no idea what it means. Did I screw up somehow? Just to be clear, I did login and just after I logged in my brain realized that it said "__$2__" instead of what it should say.

bitwarden:~$ sudo ./bitwarden.sh updateself _ _ _ _ | |__ (_) |___ ____ _ _ __ __| | ___ _ __ | '_ \| | __\ \ /\ / / _` | '__/ _` |/ _ \ '_ \ | |_) | | |_ \ V V / (_| | | | (_| | __/ | | | |_.__/|_|\__| \_/\_/ \__,_|_| \__,_|\___|_| |_| Open source password management solutions Copyright 2015-2023, 8bit Solutions LLC https://bitwarden.com, https://github.com/bitwarden =================================================== bitwarden.sh version 2023.10.3 Docker version 24.0.7, build afdd53b Docker Compose version v2.21.0 Updated self. bitwarden:~$ sudo ./bitwarden.sh update _ _ _ _ | |__ (_) |___ ____ _ _ __ __| | ___ _ __ | '_ \| | __\ \ /\ / / _` | '__/ _` |/ _ \ '_ \ | |_) | | |_ \ V V / (_| | | | (_| | __/ | | | |_.__/|_|\__| \_/\_/ \__,_|_| \__,_|\___|_| |_| Open source password management solutions Copyright 2015-2023, 8bit Solutions LLC https://bitwarden.com, https://github.com/bitwarden =================================================== bitwarden.sh version 2023.10.3 Docker version 24.0.7, build afdd53b Docker Compose version v2.21.0 Update not needed bitwarden:~$

Bitwarden (version 8588): A secure and free password manager for all of your devices.

I would also recommend the use of a password manager such as Proton Pass, BitWarden or 1Password if your looking for a more premium solution.

Use a password manager if you do not already and have it generate unique passwords for every website. Bitwarden is one of the best. You should NEVER reuse passwords and should always use unique passwords. It may be inconvenient at first but a password manager like Bitwarden really does make it a whole lot more convenient. Your e-mail especially should have its own unique password. You should also use two-factor authentication on any website that offers it. If you do not have a good AV on your computers, Bitdefender and Kaspersky both offer free options. The website https://haveibeenpwned.com/ is a good place to check if your credentials have been in a data breach.