Dashlane’s best password manager has gone open source with the code for its apps for iOS and Android devices, making it public for anyone to get their hands on.
In a blog post (opens in a new tab) on the company’s website listed various reasons for opening up its code, such as increasing transparency and trust, as well as wanting to contribute to a more inclusive developer culture in the tech industry.
The code is available on Dashlane GitHub, with separate pages for iOS (opens in a new tab) AND Android (opens in a new tab) versions. Source codes are licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (opens in a new tab).
Feedback welcome
Primarily used as a business password manager, Dashlane has followed more personal-user focused managers like Bitwarden in its transition to open source.
The company said it plans to “update these projects quarterly, and we may update more frequently in the future as we improve our internal capabilities and processes.”
Anyone from developers to curious customers can explore the Dashlane code to see the algorithms and logic behind how mobile apps work. They will also be able to learn how password managers work in general.
The advantage for business users, the company points out, is that IT teams can audit the password manager to make sure it complies with their company’s security policies.
Dashlane also seeks feedback from Android and iOS engineers on the quality of its code, and encourages ethical hackers to test their skills and find vulnerabilities in it by asking them to report them to HackerOne Bug Bounty (opens in a new tab).
Accepting this kind of commitment from the developer community, Dashlane states that it does not accept contributions to the code of its software – yet. However, he hopes that in the future developers will be able to make such contributions directly to the GitHub page.
While most of the code is publicly available, Dashlane warns that it will not be possible to fully reverse engineer its software. As it is put, “we share the recipe but had to leave out a few ingredients that make it our own.”
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