Bitwarden update: sdk-internal now GPL, sdk/sdk-secrets to remain proprietary but not used in clients
Bitwarden update: sdk-internal now GPL, sdk/sdk-secrets to remain proprietary but not used in clients
Pull request #10974 introduces the @bitwarden/sdk-internal dependency which is needed to build the desktop client. The dependency contains a licence statement which contains the following clause: Y...
@brjsp thanks again for submitting the concern here. We have made some adjustments to how the SDK code is organized and packaged to allow you to build and run the app with only GPL/OSI licenses included. The sdk-internal package references in the clients now come from a new sdk-internal repository, which follows the licensing model we have historically used for all of our clients (see LICENSE_FAQ.md for more info). The sdk-internal reference only uses GPL licenses at this time. If the reference were to include Bitwarden License code in the future, we will provide a way to produce multiple build variants of the client, similar to what we do with web vault client builds.
The original sdk repository will be renamed to sdk-secrets, and retains its existing Bitwarden SDK License structure for our Secrets Manager business products. The sdk-secrets repository and packages will no longer be referenced from the client apps, since that code is not used there.
This appears at least okay on the surface. The clients' dependency on sdk-internal didn't change but that's okay now because they have licensed sdk-internal as GPL.
The sdk-secrets will remain proprietary but that's a separate product (Secrets Manager) and will apparently not be used in the regular clients. Who knows for how long though because, if you read carefully, they didn't promise that it will not be used in the future.
The fact that they had ever intended to make parts of the client proprietary without telling anyone and attempted to subvert the GPL while doing so still remains utterly unacceptable. They didn't even attempt to apologise for that.
Bitwarden has now landed itself in the category of software that I would rather move away from and cannot wholeheartedly recommend anymore. That's pretty sad.
Cool. They got that sorted nice and quickly.
Edit:
I don’t get why people think they’re suddenly doing stuff under a different license to subvert the open nature of the project. They’ve been totally transparent on what isn’t part of the GPL/AGPL licensed code for years.
SSO, the password health service, organisation auth requests, member access report blah blah have been enterprise features under the Bitwarden License for ages and they architected the projects in a clear and transparent way to build without those features since they added them.
91I don’t get why people think they’re suddenly doing stuff under a different license to subvert the open nature of the project.
But then what will I do with my day if I don't have a good reason to be mad at them?
/s
(And thanks for the voice of reason)
14What they've done in the past has earned them trust, but it is irrelevant to what they intend to do in the future. Bitwarden is growing company, not the scrappy little open source app they once were.
In 2022, a private equity firm injected 100m into Bitwarden. From that point forward, users are rightfully going to scrutinize any action they take because it's 2024 and the tech space is a hellscape of enshitification and acquisitions, thanks in part to VC money. We've seen this story play out too many times to assume there's nothing to worry about.
So yes, people are going to be suspicious. That's not irrational.
6a private equity firm injected 100m
That's all that one needs to know. Once those leeches are involved as investors, it's over. They demand enshitification from our destroy everything that they touch for a quick buck.
4
Until the situation now, this was limited to the server, not the clients. You could replace the server with Vaultwarden and build it without enterprise features. Not ideal but fine because the server isn't the critical part. It never handles your secrets in any way.
What they tried to do now was integrate proprietary code into the clients that everyone uses. This is a lot more critical as it can access the secrets in plain text.
This also wasn't a "mistake" or "bug", they openly admitted to doing this with the intention of subverting the client code's GPL.
1
Uhh what does this mean for us dummies? For reference I run a self hosted vaultwarden server and connect to it with Bitwarden clients.
24It means all the code you run is open source.
Only the Bitwarden back-end uses proprietary code, which you aren't using when you're self-hosting vaultwarden.54With 2024.10, Bitwarden could no longer be built without their proprietary SDK.
That was deemed a bug and now the SDK is also licensed under the GPL.
11To clarify, the desktop BitWarden client, only.
And this was corrected.
3
I think right now it doesn't mean anything :/. It's more a 'wait&see' situation... However as many many other stories in the past, this doesn't sound good and bitwarden is slowly and carefully following the 'enshitification' path !
Keep an eye open and get ready to switch to another password manager (maybe a fork?).
9
Huh, nice to see my initial judgment was incorrect
14What does this mean for Vaultwarden?
6All open source baby
24And it’s made by a Bitwarden developer.
3
That's a lot of text for "we're not open source, please don't trust us and please use another system".
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