this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025
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Insanity is when you lose or can't access your 2FA device and you're locked out of your account.
That's what recovery codes are for.
Sounds like a second password then.
...which you keep in a separate secure location in case you lose your 2FA device.
Why can't I keep my password in a secure location then?
obviously you do but it can be leaked, phished, or hacked in other ways. a second "factor" such as possession of a token device is a safeguard against that.
you can actually read about all this many places online, it's nothing new: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication
From the wikipedia link you posted:
It also lists more advantages than disadvantages.
yes, that's the whole point, to recover your account if you lose your MFA device. what are you even trying to say?
edit:
the article lists 3 very important advantages, and 9 relatively small/niche disadvantages (or even irrelevant in the case of SMS). mobile MFA makes sense for the vast majority of people, of course there are always edge cases who it may not work for.
If you can login without the second factor then what's the point?
We already covered this at the top. You keep the recovery codes unexposed to the internet or obfuscated in some way, unlike your usual password. Therefore you can have confidence that they haven't been hacked, leaked, or whatever like passwords often are.
anyway I tire of your sea lioning. if you are truly asking good faith questions you can research on your own from here.
How is a strong password I used exclusively for Bitwarden "exposed to the internet"? I do see the value of this for people that don't care about security and reuse the same password everywhere. In that case you would need something like phishing to expose the 2FA code or the recovery code, just a leak of the email-password combination from another website would not be enough. But what's the point if I'm already using a unique strong password specifically for Bitwarden?
shit, why can't i just keep the secondary password instead of relying on notoriously insecure sms, or notoriously privacy invading email?
why am i forced in some instances to rely on third parties?
I can't believe people are arguing about and downvoting this. Especially for a service that holds all of your passwords, it's the highest priority thing for you to secure.
Me losing my devices is much higher on my threat model than someone trying to brute-force my Bitwarden password.
/1. we've covered this already. that's why recovery codes exist.
/2. losing your device is not a threat to your accounts saved in bitwarden, you'd just have to reset your passwords. it sucks, but that's not a security threat.
/3. there's way more than brute-force attacks out there.
This is being purposefully obtuse. Choosing to force users to memorize a recovery code increases the likelihood of lock outs.
There is a real risk of account lockout, especially for those of us who travel frequently. Lockouts are a significant risk when you need to carry all your belongings and devices.
There are also some of us who also think about what happens to us when we are incapacitated and a loved one needs access to our passwords. In a situation, it's important to balance security vs expediency to access critical information. This new policy disrupts that.
At the very least, I wish Bitwarden would have given us more time to force this policy. I have to scramble to make changes to my estate planning documents and get in contact with my lawyer to change my advanced healthcare directives.
now who's being purposefully obtuse.
Never underestimate the human capacity for short-sighted laziness.
Recovery codes.
insanity is also relying on a single 2FA device, ffs