Share Password Managers with Teams Safely (Vaults, Roles, and Recovery)

Why master password sharing fails

Sharing a single master password defeats the purpose of a password manager. It kills audit trails, makes offboarding painful, and puts the vault at risk if one person is compromised.

Safe patterns for team sharing

• Vaults or collections: group credentials by project/client.
• Roles: limit admins, assign most as “Members.”
• MFA enforced: WebAuthn keys or app-based 2FA required for all users.

Onboarding checklist

1. Verify identity before sending invites. Habit: Verify Links.
2. Invite by email to a specific vault or collection.
3. Enable provisioning via SSO where possible (Okta, Google Workspace, Entra).

Recovery processes

• Designate recovery admins to handle lost accounts.
• Keep backups of recovery codes offline. Basics: Recovery Codes Safely.
• Emergency access: configure trusted contacts. Guide: Emergency Access.

Offboarding & audits

• Remove users immediately on exit.
• Rotate credentials they had access to. Checklist: Employee Offboarding.
• Audit vault activity regularly for suspicious exports.

Useful external references

• 1Password Business 🔗
• LastPass Business 🔗
• Bitwarden Organizations 🔗

Related reading

Stop Sharing Passwords · Zero-Knowledge Sharing · Secret-Sharing Policy

Bottom line

Use vaults, roles, recovery processes, and MFA—not a single master password. That’s team password management without the headaches.

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