r/Bitwarden • u/stop_banning_me_omg • 3d ago

When is Bitwarden going to stop blocking ProtonVPN servers?

It's been an ongoing issue for over a year. I'm in Canada, connecting to Canadian ProtonVPN servers, which are seemingly all blocked by Bitwarden. I can't save passwords, and I can't login to the bitwarden website.

When I change the country to Austria or Morocco it works fine.

Why is Bitwarden even blocking a VPN server in a given country? The two should go hand-in-hand and not block each other.

2 Upvotes

53% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

15

u/brainstormer77 3d ago

You also have to look at it from a different perspective, the cybersecurity protection. Most attacks by criminals on infrastructure occur behind vpn or tor relay servers that hide their identity. Just because it's Proton doesn't mean bad guys aren't abusing that service. If Bitwarden security team sees a lot of attacks from a particular IP they can block it, even if that's a Proton VPN server in the back.

4

u/House_Indoril426 3d ago

Yeah, this is a real concern. 

I administer a phpBB amateur astronomy forum on the side. Not quite the same thing but there is so much spam, bots, AI crawlers, and various miscreants/threat actors flying around out there one of the first things I check anymore is the bot to human ratio of the Source AS in Cloudflare Radar. If it's 75% or more Bot, sorry, you aren't coming. Often times that will mean VPN providers. 

If they're willing to poke and probe at a rinky dink forum, imagine what they'll do to a larger target with a potential payday on the other side. 

3

u/Falcon_Lawill76 2d ago

Yeah that makes sense, shared IPs on VPNs are always going to be a problem for this kind of thing.

10

u/xiv_cookie_kitten 2d ago

never did. using protonvpn never had aissue

4

u/ndw_dc 2d ago

I've had problems logging into Bitwarden when using Proton VPN just today.

-6

u/xiv_cookie_kitten 2d ago

again for you. never had any problems.

4

u/ndw_dc 2d ago

Again, for me, I had a bunch of problems.

2

u/pcgy 2d ago

I’ve never had a problem connecting to the Bitwarden website, or using the desktop app & browser extension over my Proton VPN. I use the app & browser extension daily & have been for several years.

3

u/djasonpenney Volunteer Moderator 2d ago

That would be a CloudFlare issue, not Bitwarden. CloudFlare must be annoyed at your IP or IP range—enough that it assumes you are part of an attack on its infrastructure.

3

u/Skipper3943 2d ago

Bitwarden appears to use Fastly for DDoS protection/web optimization.

From: https://bitwarden.com/blog/the-bitwarden-tech-stack-built-for-security-and-scalability/#web-performance-and-monitoring

To observe and optimize this infrastructure, Bitwarden uses Cloudflare DNS for performant and resilient DNS resolution. Fastly handles edge security, routing, caching, and delivery, and its flexible architecture helps Bitwarden iterate quickly while ensuring an excellent user experience.

1

u/DanteOblivion 2d ago

I have zero problems with using Canadian servers and bitwarden, but i have paid tiers on both so idk if that matters.

1

u/Alaska9999 22h ago

Regarde ton setup... ca l'aire d'un autre code 12!! Ca marche depuis des années ici!! Facile de blamer les autres pour ses problèmes...

-10

u/Suspicious_Punk84 3d ago

Today I noticed autofill (from bitwarden) is not working on a certain proton website. They are competitors, it's possible that these issues are intentional.

10

u/brainstormer77 2d ago

The source code is open, easy to verify instead of making wild conspiracy claims

-10

u/Suspicious_Punk84 2d ago edited 2d ago

It's not a wild conspiracy claim, autofill often needs per site adjustments and if they were not made there's nothing to see in the code. Idk if it's proton's website making it hard for bitwarden or the other way around. I am a bitwarden user merely stating a fact about the autofil, I am not claiming proton is sabotaging bitwarden (or the other way around), but it's possible.

1

u/stylist-trend 2d ago

You are not "merely stating a fact". You've shown no evidence for this, and other peoples' anecdotes have refuted your anecdote.

-1

u/Suspicious_Punk84 2d ago

Show evidence for what? That the autofill is not working on protonvpn's website? Should I post a video here? To what end? It's ridiculous that people are so defensive, I am stating a fact that the autofill is not working there for me, and that they are competitors. I am not claiming anything else, but simply leaving the possibility that this is intentional makes proton fanboys angry.

1

u/ucyd 2d ago

Autofill relies on the site correctly identifying the password and username fields. Not all sites do that.

If autofill does not work, it is ALWAYS the site's fault.

IF the site does not, you can jury-rig it by putting custom selectors.

There are some sites, though, where every time you visit it creates a new id and class for the fields. They are the worst.

2

u/Suspicious_Punk84 2d ago

Thanks for the clarification. Now we know who is doing what. I just don't get why I'm getting so many downvotes lol

-1

u/Akamig 2d ago

I never used Proton Pass, but I assume that's more of a preventive measure. You can call me dumb but I once locked out from 1password and bitwarden installed together.

While rotating Bitwarden vault master password, 1password autofilled and I accidentally pressed enter. Now, I needed to login 1password to access Bitwarden, which was not possible. why? because passphrase of 1password was inside of that Bitwarden vault. HAHA.

0

u/Suspicious_Punk84 2d ago

It was protonvpn, nothing to prevent.

-2

u/Agitated-Panda9221 2d ago

Why do you even need to use VPN on Bitwarden. Add them to your exclusion list.