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Bitwarden adds passwordless SSO to make enterprise customer lives easier
Bitwarden is always upping the password manager game. This particular password manager is a zero-knowledge, end-to-end encrypted solution, which means that only the user can ever access their vault items and other data.
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Now, Bitwarden adds SSO (Single Sign-On) for trusted devices to make unlocking your vault even easier.
What is SSO?
SSO is an authentication method that allows users to log in with a single ID to multiple related (but independent) software systems. True SSO allows you to log in once and access all related services without having to re-enter your authentication credentials.
According to the official Bitwarden blog announcement, "When logging in there is both an authentication process and a decryption process. These are handled simultaneously, but separately when a user logs in. When set up with an identity provider (IdP) service, it authenticates the user through SSO. Then, the data is separately decrypted with the account encryption key and made available to the user."
What is SSO with trusted devices?
SSO with trusted devices allows you to authenticate, using SSO, to decrypt your vault using an encryption key stored on a device. Effectively, you could store the encryption key on your phone, which would allow you to unlock the desktop or web version of Bitwarden with your phone.
That way, instead of having to type a master password (which someone could either view or intercept), you unlock your phone and tap the request to authenticate, which unlocks your vault (wherever you are viewing it).
Now, with passwordless SSO, users are able to work with trusted devices, even on a Bitwarden enterprise account, thereby making it faster and more secure.
Also: How to enable Bitwarden biometric unlock (and why you should)
This, of course, doesn't mean you'll be limited only to SSO with trusted devices, as Bitwarden will still allow login with a master password or biometrics. But for enterprise customers, SSO with trusted devices is a far more efficient, secure, and scalable method of unlocking vaults.
The new SSO option only works with enterprise organizations (for both Bitwarden Password Manager and Bitwarden Secrets Manager) and admins must enable the Login with SSO function. Once that has been enabled, users can turn on SSO with trusted devices from within the app. Of course, if you've never used SSO, you'll want to visit the Bitwarden help center to find out how.
Bitwarden also plans to roll out support for SSO with trusted devices for Firefox soon.