What is a password vault?
A password vault is the encrypted container holding the credentials a traditional password manager has saved. It is decrypted locally with a key derived from your master password, then synced between devices in encrypted form. The vault makes autofill and recovery possible. It also makes the provider a target.
- Topic
- Passwords
- Also called
- encrypted vault, password database
- Reading time
- 1 min
- Reviewed
On this page
Why a vault is a concentration of risk
A vault is valuable enough to attack patiently. When the encrypted vaults themselves leak, as happened in the 2022 LastPass incident, the attacker gets unlimited offline attempts against every vault. The strength of your master password and the iteration count in use at the time become the remaining barriers.
What a vault buys you in return
Autofill, secure notes, credit cards, TOTP codes, sharing, and account recovery all depend on there being something stored. These are real benefits, and for many people they outweigh the concentration risk. The choice is a genuine trade-off, not a right answer.
Sources
These primary references support the terminology and current security guidance used in this definition.
