Cipher

The encrypted vault item. Defined at src/Core/Vault/Entities/Cipher.cs and persisted to dbo.Cipher.

Important columns

Column	Notes
Id (Guid)	Primary key.
UserId	Set for personal ciphers; null for org-owned.
OrganizationId	Set for org ciphers. Exactly one of UserId / OrganizationId must be non-null.
Type	CipherType enum: Login, SecureNote, Card, Identity, SshKey, Fido2Key.
Data	The encrypted JSON payload. Shape depends on Type.
Favorites	JSON map of userId → bool so a user can favourite a cipher in a shared collection without affecting others.
Folders	JSON map of userId → folderId.
Attachments	JSON map of attachmentId → AttachmentData.
Reprompt	CipherRepromptType — None / Password (re-prompt master password before showing).
Key	Optional cipher-specific key (used by SSH-key ciphers and certain new flows).
DeletedDate	Soft-delete marker.
RevisionDate, CreationDate	Audit timestamps. Bumped on every edit.
OrganizationUseTotp	Boolean — does the parent org allow TOTP storage on this cipher?

Versions

Different Type values use different schema for Data:

• Login — username, password, totp, uris, passwordRevisionDate, FIDO2 credentials.
• Card — cardholder name, brand, number, expMonth/expYear, code.
• Identity — first/last name, address, phone, ssn, etc.
• SecureNote — only the notes field plus type=Generic.
• SshKey (added 2024.12) — public + private key, fingerprint, expiration.
• Fido2Key / passkey — credentials stored alongside login items.

The minimum client version to recognise each new type is enforced via constants like Constants.SSHKeyCipherMinimumVersion = "2024.12.0" and Constants.PM32009NewItemTypeMinimumVersion.

Repositories

ICipherRepository (src/Core/Vault/Repositories/ICipherRepository.cs) with Dapper + EF implementations. Bulk operations are exposed as Cipher_CreateMany, Cipher_UpdateUserKeys, etc. (sprocs).

Read shapes

• Cipher — the raw entity.
• CipherDetails (src/Core/Vault/Models/Data/CipherDetails.cs) — joined with the caller's permissions (viewPassword, edit, manage).
• CipherOrganizationDetails — for org-only views.
• CipherMiniDetails — sync-payload-friendly slim shape.

Soft-delete and restore

Cipher.DeletedDate toggles soft delete. CipherService.SoftDeleteManyAsync and RestoreManyAsync bulk-set the column. A Quartz cleanup job purges items past the retention window.

Where it shows up

• See vault-and-ciphers for the full feature.
• Encrypted attachments live in Azure Blob via IAttachmentStorageService.
• Audit events: Cipher_Created, Cipher_Updated, Cipher_Deleted, Cipher_SoftDeleted, Cipher_Restored.
• Push: IPushNotificationService.PushSyncCipherUpdate runs on every change.

Bitwarden Rust SDK port

Parts of cipher creation/decryption are now delegated to the Rust SDK in util/RustSdk/. The migration was gated by pm-19941-migrate-cipher-domain-to-sdk; the flag was removed in PR #7457 (2026-04-13).