Lion Cipher Lab
Self-host a password manager with Vaultwarden
- Identity & Access Management
- Beginner
- ~45 min
- Free · no account required
Why it matters
A password manager holds the keys to your entire online life, so who holds the password manager matters. When you use a company's hosted service, your encrypted vault lives on their servers under their operational control; that is convenient and, with a reputable provider, genuinely safe for most people. Self-hosting is the other choice: you run the vault server yourself, so the data sits on hardware you own and no third party can lock you out, shut the service down, or change its terms. That control is real, but it is not free — the moment you hold the server, you also hold the job of…
What you'll learn
- self-hosting
- Vaultwarden
- running a service in Docker
- Bitwarden clients
- securing a self-hosted service (HTTPS, admin token, backups)
- control-vs-convenience trade-offs
Steps in this lab
- Why self-host a vault at all
- Confirm Docker is ready
- Run Vaultwarden in a container
- Create your account and connect a Bitwarden client
- Secure it, part 1: put it behind HTTPS
- Secure it, part 2: lock the admin page with a strong token
- Secure it, part 3: back it up, because now it is on you
- What you just did — control, and the responsibility that comes with it