Honest question, by why is there OTP built into the Bitwarden authenticator? I mean, I kind of thought the entire point of OTP was to have a could sent to a second device, with a different authentication method. If the OTP is generated on the same device, that uses the same master password, is there really a point to using an OTP? Am I missing something?
Yes, you are identifying an important trade-off.
What OTP normally provides
A TOTP code is intended to be a separate possession factor: something available only to a device or application holding the TOTP secret. It is not necessarily sent to another device; authenticator apps usually generate the code locally.
Using Bitwarden to store both the password and the TOTP secret still provides useful protection against:
- Password reuse and credential-stuffing attacks
- A password being exposed in a data breach
- Someone learning or guessing the password without access to the encrypted vault
However, it provides less separation than storing the TOTP secret in a separate authenticator or on a hardware security key.
The main limitation
If an attacker gains access to your unlocked Bitwarden vault, they may obtain both the password and the TOTP secret. In that situation, the OTP no longer provides meaningful protection for accounts whose credentials are stored together.
It also does not protect well against malware or a serious compromise of the device while the vault is unlocked.
When integrated OTP is reasonable
It is convenient and generally better than using only a password. It also makes enabling 2FA practical for more accounts, which is valuable because many people otherwise do not enable it.
When separate storage is preferable
For your email account, password manager, financial accounts, and other high-value services, consider using:
- A separate authenticator application
- A different device
- A hardware security key, preferably using FIDO2/WebAuthn where supported
You should also enable a separate second factor for the Bitwarden account itself. A security key is generally stronger than storing the Bitwarden account’s own OTP secret inside Bitwarden.
So, the short answer is: storing OTPs in Bitwarden is still useful against password-only attacks, but it reduces the independence of the second factor. It is a convenience-versus-separation decision, not equivalent to keeping the second factor on a separate device.
