This is Bitwarden server API implementation written in rust compatible with upstream Bitwarden clients*, ideal for self-hosted deployment where running official resource-heavy service might not be ideal.

Image is based on Rust implementation of Bitwarden API.

*Note, that this project is not associated with the Bitwarden project nor 8bit Solutions LLC.

Features

Basically full implementation of Bitwarden API is provided including:

• Basic single user functionality
• Organizations support
• Attachments
• Vault API support
• Serving the static files for Vault interface
• Website icons API

Docker image usage

Starting a container

The persistent data is stored under /data inside the container, so the only requirement for persistent deployment using Docker is to mount persistent volume at the path:

docker run -d --name bitwarden -v /bw-data/:/data/ -p 80:80 mprasil/bitwarden:latest

This will preserve any persistent data under /bw-data/, you can adapt the path to whatever suits you.

The service will be exposed on port 80.

Updating the bitwarden image

Updating is straightforward, you just make sure to preserve the mounted volume. If you used the bind-mounted path as in the example above, you just need to pull the latest image, stop and rm the current container and then start a new one the same way as before:

# Pull the latest version
docker pull mprasil/bitwarden:latest

# Stop and remove the old container
docker stop bitwarden
docker rm bitwarden

# Start new container with the data mounted
docker run -d --name bitwarden -v /bw-data/:/data/ -p 80:80 mprasil/bitwarden:latest

Then visit http://localhost:80

In case you didn't bind mount the volume for persistent data, you need an intermediate step where you preserve the data with an intermediate container:

# Pull the latest version
docker pull mprasil/bitwarden:latest

# Create intermediate container to preserve data
docker run --volumes-from bitwarden --name bitwarden_data busybox true

# Stop and remove the old container
docker stop bitwarden
docker rm bitwarden

# Start new container with the data mounted
docker run -d --volumes-from bitwarden_data --name bitwarden -p 80:80 mprasil/bitwarden:latest

# Optionally remove the intermediate container
docker rm bitwarden_data

# Alternatively you can keep data container around for future updates in which case you can skip last step.

Configuring bitwarden service

Disable registration of new users

By default new users can register, if you want to disable that, set the SIGNUPS_ALLOWED env variable to false:

docker run -d --name bitwarden \
  -e SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=false \
  -v /bw-data/:/data/ \
  -p 80:80 \
  mprasil/bitwarden:latest

Changing persistent data location

/data prefix:

By default all persistent data is saved under /data, you can override this path by setting the DATA_FOLDER env variable:

docker run -d --name bitwarden \
  -e DATA_FOLDER=/persistent \
  -v /bw-data/:/persistent/ \
  -p 80:80 \
  mprasil/bitwarden:latest

Notice, that you need to adapt your volume mount accordingly.

database name and location

Default is $DATA_FOLDER/db.sqlite3, you can change the path specifically for database using DATABASE_URL variable:

docker run -d --name bitwarden \
  -e DATABASE_URL=/database/bitwarden.sqlite3 \
  -v /bw-data/:/data/ \
  -v /bw-database/:/database/ \
  -p 80:80 \
  mprasil/bitwarden:latest

Note, that you need to remember to mount the volume for both database and other persistent data if they are different.

attachments location

Default is $DATA_FOLDER/attachments, you can change the path using ATTACHMENTS_FOLDER variable:

docker run -d --name bitwarden \
  -e ATTACHMENTS_FOLDER=/attachments \
  -v /bw-data/:/data/ \
  -v /bw-attachments/:/attachments/ \
  -p 80:80 \
  mprasil/bitwarden:latest

Note, that you need to remember to mount the volume for both attachments and other persistent data if they are different.

icons cache

Default is $DATA_FOLDER/icon_cache, you can change the path using ICON_CACHE_FOLDER variable:

docker run -d --name bitwarden \
  -e ICON_CACHE_FOLDER=/icon_cache \
  -v /bw-data/:/data/ \
  -v /icon_cache/ \
  -p 80:80 \
  mprasil/bitwarden:latest

Note, that in the above example we don't mount the volume locally, which means it won't be persisted during the upgrade unless you use intermediate data container using --volumes-from. This will impact performance as bitwarden will have to re-dowload the icons on restart, but might save you from having stale icons in cache as they are not automatically cleaned.

Changing the API request size limit

By default the API calls are limited to 10MB. This should be sufficient for most cases, however if you want to support large imports, this might be limiting you. On the other hand you might want to limit the request size to something smaller than that to prevent API abuse and possible DOS attack, especially if running with limited resources.

To set the limit, you can use the ROCKET_LIMITS variable. Example here shows 10MB limit for posted json in the body (this is the default):

docker run -d --name bitwarden \
  -e ROCKET_LIMITS={json=10485760} \
  -v /bw-data/:/data/ \
  -p 80:80 \
  mprasil/bitwarden:latest

Enabling HTTPS

To enable HTTPS, you need to configure the ROCKET_TLS.

The values to the option must follow the format:

ROCKET_TLS={certs="/path/to/certs.pem",key="/path/to/key.pem"}

Where:

• certs: a path to a certificate chain in PEM format
• key: a path to a private key file in PEM format for the certificate in certs

docker run -d --name bitwarden \
  -e ROCKET_TLS={certs='"/ssl/certs.pem",key="/ssl/key.pem"}' \
  -v /ssl/keys/:/ssl/ \
  -v /bw-data/:/data/ \
  -v /icon_cache/ \
  -p 443:443 \
  mprasil/bitwarden:latest

Note that you need to mount ssl files and you need to forward appropriate port.

Other configuration

Though this is unlikely to be required in small deployment, you can fine-tune some other settings like number of workers using environment variables that are processed by Rocket, please see details in documentation.

Building your own image

Clone the repository, then from the root of the repository run:

# Build the docker image:
docker build -t bitwarden_rs .

Building binary

For building binary outside the Docker environment and running it locally without docker, please see build instructions.

Backing up your vault

1. the sqlite3 database

The sqlite3 database should be backed up using the proper sqlite3 backup command. This will ensure the database does not become corrupted if the backup happens during a database write.

sqlite3 /$DATA_FOLDER/db.sqlite3 ".backup '/$DATA_FOLDER/db-backup/backup.sq3'"

This command can be run via a CRON job everyday, however note that it will overwrite the same backup.sq3 file each time. This backup file should therefore be saved via incremental backup either using a CRON job command that appends a timestamp or from another backup app such as Duplicati.

2. the attachements folder

By default, this is located in $DATA_FOLDER/attachments

3. the key files

This is optional, these are only used to store tokens of users currently logged in, deleting them would simply log each user out forcing them to log in again. By default, these are located in the $DATA_FOLDER (by default /data in the docker). There are 3 files: rsa_key.der, rsa_key.pem, rsa_key.pub.der.

4. Icon Cache

This is optional, the icon cache can redownload itself however if you have a large cache, it may take a long time. By default it is located in $DATA_FOLDER/icon_cache