Bitwarden users who store their email account credentials within their Bitwarden vaults would have trouble accessing the sent codes if they are unable to log in to their email.
To prevent getting locked out of your vault, be sure you can access the email associated with your Bitwarden account so you can access the emailed codes, or turn on any form of two-step login to not be subject to this process altogether.
I understand this change by Bitwarden, but I wish they gave us the option to turn this off or at least given us more time before forcing this on us.
There’s a lot of comments talking about how this increases security, which is true. But it also increases the risk of account lockout. This is especially true in two scenarios: traveling and incapacitation.
Traveling - for those of us who travel frequently, we carry all of our belongings with us. This makes us particularly vulnerable to account lockouts. We can’t securely store backup devices or documents in easily accessible locations. We can’t easily rely on trusted friends or family because they are so far away. Also, internet accounts are more likely to lock us out anyway because we are logging in from a different country, which is suspicious behavior.
Incapacitation - god forbid, if there comes a time when we are permanently or temporarily incapacitation, it becomes important for our loved ones to access accounts. When we are in the hospital, it’s important that our loved ones get access to our personal accounts. I personally have advanced directives and have worked with an estate lawyer to make sure that my Bitwarden account becomes available. I also have instructions for immediate trusted family on how to access my vault if I were ever in the hospital. With this short notice, I need to scramble to get all of that updated and provide a way for them to access the account without my 2FA devices.
The above scenarios are based off of my real experience. These are real and likely risks that I have to account for. Security is not just making sure that outside bad actors CANNOT gain access, but it also means that the right people CAN get access at the right time.
What am I going to do? I’m weighing my options.
The other option for traveling that might be better is use Keepass with the file stored on your phone, that way no internet is needed and there’s no chance of lockout from your password DB.