INSTALL
BITWARDEN
ON YOUR NAS
For Bitwarden to work effectively,
you need 24/7 access to the server.
Thanks to their support for Docker,
both capable Synology and QNAP
NAS drives are the perfect host for
your new Bitwarden server. Synology
users can follow the guide at http://www.
synoforum.com/resources/bitwarden-
self-hosted-password-manager-
using-bitwardenrs-server-image.3/,
but QNAP users need to adapt the
instructions there for their own setup,
as follows....
If you’re using QNAP, first
verify in File Station that there’s
a shared “Container” folder, then
add a subfolder inside here called
“Bitwarden.” Next, open Container
Station, choose “Create” and search
for “bitwardenrs” then click “Install”
next to the “bitwardenrs/server” entry
at the top. Leave “Latest” selected and
click “Next.”
Give it a suitable name, then reduce
the “CPU Limit” to 20 percent and
“Memory Limit” to the minimum 64MB
before clicking “Advanced Settings.”
Select “Network”—by default, NAT
mode shares your NAS’s IP address
with Bitwarden (click “Add” under port
forwarding to forward port 4000 on
the host to 80 on the container); if you
want to allocate it a unique IP address
on your network, select “Bridge” under
“Network Mode,” followed by “Use
static IP,” and pick an unused IP.
Select “Shared Folder” and click the
second “Add” button above “Volume
from host.” Next, click inside the
“Volume from host” box to browse for
the “Bitwarden” folder you created,
then type “/data” into the “Mount
Point” box. Click “Create,” review the
settings, and click “OK.” To monitor
the installation, select “Containers”
under “Resource.” Once downloaded,
the Bitwarden docker appears here.
Click its name to view the console as
its setup and basic configuration takes
place. When you see a reference to
“[rocket:rocket[[INFO] GET/alive:” the
server should be up and running. Open
a web browser and type the IP address
you allocated earlier into it, and you
should find yourself at the web vault
login screen, ready to continue.
to save the username and password into
its archive: Click “Save” and a new tab
opens with the new entry details showing
name, username, password, and URL.
Review and edit these if necessary, then
select your archive followed by a group
(this is mandatory, so consider creating
one in the desktop application—“Web
passwords, for example”—if necessary),
before clicking “Save New Entry.”
Once your entries start to build up,
it’s time to take advantage of Buttercup’s
password-filling features. Look for the
Buttercup logo appearing next to login
boxes in your browser—click this and
you should see the relevant username
and password appear, enabling you
to click to quickly populate the boxes.
Alternatively click the “...” button to reveal
options to copy username or password to
the clipboard, plus reveal the password
behind its mask. If you’re signing up to
a website for the first time, right-click
inside the password field, and choose
“Buttercup > Generate password” to
create a strong random password.
When it comes to mobile use, iPhone
users can configure Buttercup in the same
way as Strongbox (see boxout on previous
page) to automatically fill passwords in
any app as well as your browser. While a
little rough around the edges, Buttercup
has most bases covered, but if you want
the best of all worlds—and are prepared
to work for it—read on.SECURE WITH BITWARDEN
Our final solution is our current go-to
password manager: Bitwarden (https://
bitwarden.com). This open-source multi-
platform offering is the closest to
LastPass and its ilk, and works in a similar
way, with your passwords hosted on its
own servers by default. But what sets it
apart is the fact it’s possible—if tricky—to host your own Bitwarden server, so all
your passwords are stored on a trusted
device at home.
The official guide for installing a full-
blown self-hosted Bitwarden installation
is found at https://help.bitwarden.com/
article/install-on-premise/—but this is
geared toward large organizations, and
comes with some overblown system
requirements. It’s also a complicated
setup, but thankfully some enterprising
folk have developed a prebuilt version.
Bitwardenrs is written in Rust, and is both
rel ati vely simple to s et up (at leas t initially)
and undemanding on your system: 10MB
RAM and negligible impact on your CPU.
For this to work, you need to employ
the services of Docker. Ideally, you’ll set
this up on an always-on 24/7 device—the
box on the left reveals how to do this on
a QNAP or Synology NAS—but you can
also install it on your PC. You need a 64-
bit CPU, 4GB system RAM, and hardware
virtualization enabled in the BIOS. You
can run Docker on any modern version
of Linux, but our instructions focus on
Windows 10 (in particular, Windows 10
Pro, Education, or Enterprise 64-bit).INSTALLATION STEPS
If your PC fits the bill, type “Windows
features” into the “Search” box, and click
“Turn Windows features on or off,” then
enable both “Containers” and “Hyper-V”
before clicking “OK” and rebooting when
prompted. Now install Docker Desktop
via https://hub.docker.com—click to sign
up for a Docker Hub account if you don’t
already have one. At the quick-start
screen, download and install Docker
Desktop for Windows (all 835MB of it).
When prompted, leave the default boxes
checked (Bitwardenrs/server is a Linux
container) and click “OK” to complete
the installation. If prompted, updateIt’s tricky, but you can secure your Bitwarden self-hosted server.©^8 B
IT^
SOLUTIONSLLCpassword server
56 MAXIMUMPC DEC 2019 maximumpc.com