Configure Bitwarden
See the Bitwarden About Key Connector and Deploy Key Connector instructions and perform the following steps:
- Set up and deploy Key Connector.
- Configure Key Connector.
- Activate Key Connector.
To get started using Key Connector for customer-managed encryption, please review the following requirements.
To use Key Connector, you must have:
- An Enterprise organization.
- A self-hosted Bitwarden server.
- An active SSO implementation.
- Activate the single organization and require single sign-on policies.
If your organization meets or can meet these requirements, including a team and infrastructure that can support the management of a key server, contact Bitwarden so they can activate Key Connector.
After you contact Bitwarden about Key Connector, they reach out to kick off a Key Connector discussion.
Perform the following tasks to set up and deploy Key Connector:
After Bitwarden enables Key Connector for your organization, complete the following steps to obtain the new license:
Open the Bitwarden cloud web app and go to your organization Billing > Subscription screen in the Admin Console.
Scroll down and select [ Download License ].
When prompted, enter the installation ID used to install your self-hosted server and select [ Submit ]. If you don't know your installation ID off-hand, you can retrieve it from ./bwdata/env/global.override.env.
You won't need your license file immediately, but you must upload it to your self-hosted server later.
To prepare your Bitwarden server for Key Connector, perform the following steps:
Save a backup of .bwdata/mssql. After you start using Key Connector, we recommend you ensure you have access to a pre-Key Connector backup image in case of an issue.
If you use an external MSSQL database, back up your database.
Update your self-hosted Bitwarden installation to retrieve the latest changes:
Edit the .bwdata/config.yml file and enable Key Connector by toggling enable_key_connector to true.
Rebuild your self-hosted Bitwarden installation:
Update your self-hosted Bitwarden installation again to apply the changes:
To configure Key Connector, perform the following steps:
Download the tarball of the Linux PKCS #11 binaries from the Portal.
Copy the Linux PKCS #11 tar file to your Bitwarden server:
Extract the .tar file.
The extracted content of the .tar file is a single fxpkcs11 directory. This directory contains the following files and directories (only the files and folders relevant to the installation process are included in this list):
File name or directory
Description
fxpkcs11.cfg
PKCS #11 configuration file to use for HSM Integrations.
x86/
This folder contains the module files for 32-bit architecture.
x64/
This folder contains the module files for 64-bit architecture.
The x86 and x64 directories contain multiple directories named for the specific OpenSSL versions. These OpenSSL directories contain the PKCS #11 module files built with the respective OpenSSL versions.
You must use the OpenSSL 3.x binaries as that is the version installed in the Bitwarden Key Connector container.
File name
Description
configTest
Program to test configuration and connection to the HSM.
libfxpkcs11.so
PKCS #11 Library file.
PKCS11Manager
Program to test connection and manage the HSM through the PKCS #11 library.
Convert the PEM certificate created with FXCLI in the previous section to PFX format using OpenSSL:
Specify Futurex123 as the password for the PFX file.
Copy the following files to the /opt/bitwarden/bwdata/key-connector directory:
As previously noted above, you must use the OpenSSL 3.x binaries as that is the version installed in the Bitwarden Key Connector container.
- Bitwarden.pfx
- PKI.p12 (the TLS client certificate created for the Futurex PKCS #11 library to mutually authenticate to the Vectera Plus)
- libfxpkcs11.so
- fxpkcs11.cfg
- PKCS11Manager
By putting these files in the /opt/bitwarden/bwdata/key-connector directory, the system bind-mounts them inside the bitwarden-key-connector container at /etc/bitwarden/key-connector.
Edit the .bwdata/env/key-connector.override.env file that came with the ./bitwarden.sh update you downloaded.
Example key-connector.override.env:
The FXPKCS11_CFG=/etc/bitwarden/key-connector/fxpkcs11.cfg enables the PKCS #11 module to find the configuration file at the non-default location (/etc). To determine the keyConnectorSettings__rsaKey__pkcs11SlotTokenSerialNumber value you must specify, run the PKCS11Manager utility against your and select option 1 (Print Library/Token Info).
Set keyConnectorSettings__rsaKey__pkcs11LoginPin to the password value you configured for the Bitwarden identity.
The following sections cover some key concepts you should understand when setting up Bitwarden.
The automated setup populates endpoint values based on your installation configuration. However, we recommend that you confirm the following values in key-connector.override.env are accurate for your setup:
Key Connector must access a database that stores encrypted user keys for your organization members. Create a secure database to store encrypted user keys and replace the default keyConnectorSettings__database__ values in key-connector.override.env with the values designated in the Required Values column for the chosen database.
The preceding key-connector.override.env instructions define Local JSON, but we do not recommend this option outside testing environments. For production environments, Bitwarden recommends using one of the other supported database options (such as Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, or MongoDB).
Key Connector uses an RSA key pair to protect user keys at rest. You must replace the default keyConnectorSettings__rsaKey__ and keyConnectorSettings__certificate__ values in key-connector.override.env with the values required to integrate with the .
The RSA key pair must be at a minimum of 2048 bits in length.
Key Connector accesses the HSM-stored private key through the PKCS #11 module and the X.509 Certificate directly in the file system.
Now that Key Connector is fully configured and you have a Key Connector-enabled license, complete the following steps:
Restart your self-hosted Bitwarden installation to apply the configuration changes:
Log in to your self-hosted Bitwarden as an organization owner and go to the Admin Console Billing > Subscription screen.
Select [ Update license ] and upload the Key Connector-enabled license retrieved in a preceding step.
If you haven't already done so, go to the Settings > Policies screen and enable both the Single organization and Require single sign-on authentication policies. Both are required to use Key Connector.
Go to the Settings > Single sign-on screen.
The next few steps assume that you already have an active login with SSO implementation using SAML 2.0 or OIDC. If you don't, implement and test a login with SSO before proceeding.
In the Member decryption options section, select Key Connector.
In the Key Connector URL input, enter the IP address Key Connector is running at (by default, https://your.domain/key-connector) and select [ Test ] to ensure you can reach Key Connector.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select [ Save ].