this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025
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Privacy

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I was thinking about how all of my passwords are compromised if I have malware on my system. It made me wonder, does Vaultwarden or KeePassXC/KeePassDX offer better protection on a malware infected system?

Vaultwarden

  • Only accessed locally via LAN/VPN
  • Set up for 2 factor authentication using WebAuthn (FIDO)

KeePasssXC/KeePassDX

  • Synced locally via syncthing
  • Set up for 2 factor authentication using HMAC-SHA1 Challenge-Response
  • All clients blocked from internet access

I don't use browser extensions and I manually copy/paste my passwords to fill in entries.

KeePass has good memory protection, but the 2FA can be read from USB and doesn't change every time the database is decrypted. Vaultwarden enables the more secure FIDO2 2FA, but to my knowledge has less secure memory management as the entire entire database is decrypted on unlock.

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[–] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago

You’re thinking about this wrong.

Instead of trying to pick the one that will handle a fail state best, you can more effectively assume a fail state and take steps to mitigate it. That is to say: implement key (in your case, password) rotation.

Just establish a trusted system, log in and change your passwords periodically.

You can even do rolling rotation where you only change a few each week.

If that doesn’t seem like the right choice to you, then consider this: you’re thinking about an unconfirmed or possibly even uninvestigated situation where your secrets have been compromised. The solution isn’t to find the secret handling software that deals with this situation in the best way possible, it’s to change secrets.