Hosting a Private Password Vault with Vaultwarden

Relying on commercial password managers means trusting a third party with your most sensitive data. Vaultwarden (formerly Bitwarden_RS) is an open-source, lightweight implementation of the Bitwarden API written in Rust. It is perfect for deployment on an offshore VPS where you maintain 100% data sovereignty.

1. Server Setup

First, update your Ubuntu or Debian server and install Docker.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install docker.io docker-compose -y

2. Docker Compose Deployment

Create a directory for your vault and a docker-compose.yml file. This ensures your database and icons are persistent across reboots.

version: '3'
services:
  vaultwarden:
    image: vaultwarden/server:latest
    container_name: vaultwarden
    restart: always
    environment:
      - SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=false
    volumes:
      - ./vw-data:/data
    ports:
      - 8080:80

3. Final Hardening

Set SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=false after creating your account to prevent unauthorized users from registering on your instance. Always use a strong Master Password and enable 2FA using a YubiKey or Authenticator app.