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May 17, 2026
Question

Unsupported Bitwarden export (kdfType: 1)

  • May 17, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 84 views

Still completely broken. If I can't import my existing vaults, I can't use 1Password.

For reference, this is the specific message it says to post to support:

Unable to import.

  • Unsupported Bitwarden export (kdfType: 1). Please contact support and attach this error message.

Error Code:

Session: KKHPERPBHFEORHVZLJGPW3N4LM

Time: 2026-05-17T01:19:15.770Z

At a guess, the Bitwarden KDF type is included in the JSON for some reason, and if you're using Argon2 (which you better be because PBKDF2 has been broken for almost 3 years now!) 1Password fails.

1 reply

1P_Dave
1Password Employee
May 19, 2026

@aaravchen 

Welcome to the community! I've moved your comment into a new topic since the old thread has been inactive for some time. The error message that you're receiving typically occurs if you're trying to import a vault from Bitwarden that is using Argon2id. You'll need to change your KDF algorithm  to PBKDF2 in Bitwarden, and then import your data again. You can read more here: Move your data from Bitwarden to 1Password

PBKDF2 has been broken for almost 3 years now!)

PBKDF2 is not broken, can you share more more information on why you think that it is? In fact, 1Password itself uses PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 for key derivation which makes it harder for someone to repeatedly guess your 1Password account password: How PBKDF2 strengthens your 1Password account password

-Dave

aaravchenAuthor
May 19, 2026

Ah, PBKDF2 wasn't completely broken, you're right, it just requires a huge number of iterations now.  

As discovered in 2023, LastPass was doing 100,000 iterations on thier PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 hashing. Bitwarden at the time was found to have implemented thier hashing iterations of the same algorithm incorrectly and instead of doing 200,000 iterations, they effectively were also doing only 100,000. Only 100,000 iterations at the time was found to be reversible on modern hardware and therefore not even close to secure (where threats have include current encrypted content capture and future hardware cracking).

At that time, 350,000 became the absolute minimum number of iterations for PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256, and OWASP changed thier recommendation to be an absolute minimum of 600,000. Bitwarden discovered this makes the hashing very slow and added Argon2id support as a far more efficient alternative, as well as switching thier default PBKDF2 iterations to 600,000 for new accounts (or when re-keying), along with a configurable value for higher numbers of iterations. The PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512 iterations also went up to an absolute minimum of 210,000 as well.

Ultimately though PBKDF2 has become like RSA keys where it's a forever chase on increasing the number of bits (iterations) at progressively higher and higher usage cost (key size/iteration processing) versus switching to a more efficient algorithm (e.g ed25519/Argon2id). 

Understandably this does cause a bit of an issue if you're trying to sell FIPS compliance, since the latest FIPS 140-3 was already partially out of date with modern technology before it even released, and FIPS certified algorithms require certification by the US government specifically, something Argon2id has explicitly declined to do. It leaves the unfortunate situation that FIPS is actively known to be less secure than average industry standards (across the board actually, not just specific to this), yet still has pull in marketing materials. I'm not surprised 1Password has opted to use the single non-configurable algorithm for the hashing and picked something that fits with FIPS so they can check that box in the marketing materials for customers that care about it. I'm hoping they've picked an iteration count much much higher than the OWASP minimum though

I would hope 1Password has high priority plans to add support for accounts to re-key, since their entire selling point is that they shouldn't be able to do it for you (otherwise it's not zero-knowledge as claimed) and they also provide strong security (which is a moving target and therefore requires the ability to update the cryptographic algorithms uses).

---

I do see there's a small note after all the step by step instructions for importing from Bitwarden included for some of the mostly duplicate official instructions (I'm seeing at least 3 different sets of official instructions), that you need to use PBKDF2 or re-ley to it in Bitwarden before export, otherwise 1Password won't be able to import. This could probably be noted at the top, when it matters, rather than the end of the instructions, and also included on all versions of the instructions scattered around the 1Password site.

1P_Dave
1Password Employee
May 20, 2026

@aaravchen 

Thank you for the thoughtful reply! I can confirm that 1Password currently uses 650,000 iterations of PBKDF2 for new accounts. If you signed up for 1Password in the last couple of years then you're already using this high iteration count. Older accounts are moved up to 650,000 iterations when changing the account password. You can find documentation here: How 1Password uses PBKDF2

Thank you for the feedback on our support documentation. We usually note issues in the “Get Help” section at the bottom of an article to keep things consistent across our knowledge base and avoid adding extra details for folks who are just looking for import instructions. That said, I’ll share your feedback with our documentation team so we can look at making this more visible.

-Dave