Master password

Your master password does two jobs at once. It signs you in — gate 1 of the two-gate model — and, combined with your Access Key, it helps derive the keys that decrypt your vaults. Rotating it is a single form at Account → Master Password.

Change it#

1. Enter your Current Password.
2. Enter your Secret Access Key — the field is hinted "From your Emergency Kit".
3. Enter and confirm the New Password and Confirm New Password. The password rules are listed under the field and tick off as you satisfy them, and a five-bar strength meter fills as the password gets stronger.
4. Choose Change Password.

The rules come from the server, not from a fixed list on this page, so they can be stricter than you expect. If your organization has a password policy, the list is headed "Required by" followed by the organization's name, and its requirements are in the list. A password you have used recently is also rejected — the last line of the list says how many of your previous passwords it checks.

When it succeeds, every other device is signed out. That is deliberate: a password change is the thing you do after a scare, and leaving old sessions alive would defeat it. You stay signed in where you made the change.

Why it asks for the Access Key#

Your vault key is sealed under a key derived from your password and your Access Key. Changing the password means re-sealing it, and that can only happen where both halves exist — this browser. So the form asks for the Access Key, uses it locally, and never sends it — only a one-way verifier of it, so the server can confirm the re-seal was made with the Access Key your account has now. If you replaced your Access Key through recovery on another device while this form was open, the change is refused with "Your Access Key was replaced on another device" instead of re-sealing your vault under the old key; sign in again with your new Emergency Kit and change the password then.

This also means a wrong current password or a wrong Access Key fails before anything is sent: the re-seal is attempted first, and if it cannot be opened, nothing reaches the server. You will see "Current password or Access Key is incorrect" without any state having changed.

Why it is instant#

Changing your password re-wraps the one key that everything else hangs from. Your items are not re-encrypted, not re-uploaded, and not touched — a vault with fifty thousand items changes password as fast as an empty one, and nothing decrypted crosses the network on the way.

What you cannot do here#

• Reuse a recent password. The password-history policy rejects it; your administrator sets how far back it looks.
• Recover a password you have lost. This form asks for the password you are replacing, so it is no help if it is gone. Use Recovery & Emergency Kit instead — which requires your Recovery Key, because there is no other way back.

Related#

• Recovery & Emergency Kit — Access Key recovery, identification code, recovery email
• Two-factor authentication — add a second factor to sign-in
• Zero-knowledge model — why we cannot reset it for you