Add IPC deep dive #616

coroiu · 2025-06-17T10:27:55Z

🎟️ Tracking

📔 Objective

Add high level documentation of the IPC framework

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Contributor guidelines followed
All formatters and local linters executed and passed
Written new unit and / or integration tests where applicable
Protected functional changes with optionality (feature flags)
Used internationalization (i18n) for all UI strings
CI builds passed
Communicated to DevOps any deployment requirements
Updated any necessary documentation (Confluence, contributing docs) or informed the documentation
team

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❓ (:question:) for questions
🤔 (:thinking:) or 💭 (:thought_balloon:) for more open inquiry that's not quite a confirmed
issue and could potentially benefit from discussion
🎨 (:art:) for suggestions / improvements
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🌱 (:seedling:) or ♻️ (:recycle:) for future improvements or indications of technical debt
⛏ (:pick:) for minor or nitpick changes

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github-actions · 2025-06-17T10:31:04Z

Checkmarx One – Scan Summary & Details – e3f17da9-6bd0-460c-a4aa-c3a8827a6770

New Issues (1)

Checkmarx found the following issues in this Pull Request

Severity	Issue	Source File / Package	Checkmarx Insight
	CVE-2025-30360	Npm-webpack-dev-server-4.15.2	details Recommended version: 5.2.1 Description: Webpack-dev-server allows users to use webpack with a development server that provides live reloading. Webpack-dev-server users' source code may b... Attack Vector: NETWORK Attack Complexity: LOW `ID: E0yJSCnvOx12sCJTgcvGVKiiUHzpcqDglasZYaQoiKc%3D` Vulnerable Package

withinfocus

Excellent writeup -- one of the best I have reviewed here. Love the use of diagrams. Just a few ⛏️.

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:38:22Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+
+The IPC framework is split into two main parts:
+
+### Platform agnostic


Suggested change

### Platform agnostic

### Platform-agnostic

Debatable in English grammar, but I prefer it hyphenated.

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:47:04Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+
+### Platform agnostic
+
+The platform agnostic parts of the IPC framework are written in Rust and are responsible for the


Suggested change

The platform agnostic parts of the IPC framework are written in Rust and are responsible for the

The platform-agnostic parts of the IPC framework are written in Rust and are responsible for the

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:47:48Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+@enduml
+```
+
+### Platform specific


Suggested change

### Platform specific

### Platform-specific

You also use a hyphen for this in a paragraph above.

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:47:58Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+
+### Platform specific
+
+The platform specific parts of the IPC framework are written in different languages and are


Suggested change

The platform specific parts of the IPC framework are written in different languages and are

The platform-specific parts of the IPC framework are written in different languages and are

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:48:27Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+and receiving of messages, persisting cryptographic sessions, as well as any other platform-specific
+details of the IPC communication. Below is an illustration of the platform-specific implementation
+for the WebAssembly (WASM) platform, which uses JavaScript to implement how messages are sent and
+received.


Suggested change

received.

received:

You use a colon above, and I also personally prefer this as a lead-in to the image.

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:50:35Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+
+### Publish/Subscribe
+
+This pattern allows consumers to subscribe to specific topics and receive messages published to


Suggested change

This pattern allows consumers to subscribe to specific topics and receive messages published to

Allows consumers to subscribe to specific topics and receive messages published to

Implied.

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:50:42Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+
+### Request/Response
+
+This pattern allows a consumer to send a request to a producer and receive a response. It is useful


Suggested change

This pattern allows a consumer to send a request to a producer and receive a response. It is useful

Allows a consumer to send a request to a producer and receive a response. It is useful

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:51:06Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+message, and the framework will handle the serialization and deserialization of the messages, as
+long as the type supports conversion to and from a `Vec<u8>` representation.
+
+### Request/Response


Suggested change

### Request/Response

### Request / Response

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:51:43Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+@enduml
+```
+
+### Request/Response


Suggested change

### Request/Response

### Request / Response

withinfocus · 2025-06-18T15:51:52Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+
+### Request/Response
+
+The request/response functionality is built on top of the publish/subscribe message format by using


Suggested change

The request/response functionality is built on top of the publish/subscribe message format by using

The request / response functionality is built on top of the publish / subscribe message format by using

trmartin4

This is an excellent summary, thank you for writing it up. I am excited to see teams start to use it!

I had a couple of small suggestions.

trmartin4 · 2025-06-18T23:10:06Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+# Inter-Process Communication (IPC)
+
+Bitwarden uses IPC to allow communication between and within certain parts of our clients. The
+oldest use-case is the communication between the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden


Suggested change

oldest use-case is the communication between the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden

original use-case is the communication between the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden

trmartin4 · 2025-06-18T23:11:37Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+oldest use-case is the communication between the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden
+desktop application to allow the extension to be unlocked using biometric authentication.
+
+Bitwarden now has a generic framework for IPC provided in the SDK. This framework is used to provide


Suggested change

Bitwarden now has a generic framework for IPC provided in the SDK. This framework is used to provide

Bitwarden now has a generic framework for IPC provided in our [SDK](https://github.com/bitwarden/sdk-internal). This framework is used to provide

Suggesting adding a link to disambiguate from our .NET SDK or SM SDK.

coroiu · 2025-06-19T06:36:29Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+contains additional metadata about the request, such as the request identifier, type, and payload.
+The type is used to determine which handler to call for the request, and the payload is the actual
+data being sent in the request. The framework will then serialize the response as an
+`RpcResponseMessage` and send it back to the consumer using the same topic. The response message


Suggested change

`RpcResponseMessage` and send it back to the consumer using the same topic. The response message

`RpcResponseMessage` and send it back to the consumer using a topic reserved for responses. The response message

Hinton · 2025-06-19T11:04:21Z

docs/architecture/deep-dives/ipc.md

+Bitwarden uses IPC to allow communication between and within certain parts of our clients. The
+oldest use-case is the communication between the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden


Oldest from the perspective of external IPC right? Client internal IPC backdates to the origin of desktop and browser extensions.

Hinton · 2025-06-19T11:13:41Z

Should there be any notes about when to use this framework? intra-client communication such as browser extension content scripts and/or popup/background might not need it.

coroiu added 4 commits June 16, 2025 15:00

feat: add IPC introduction

14e0d47

feat: expand on the security

0a71c17

chore: fix styling

bbf6432

feat: add message format section

98626d2

coroiu requested a review from a team as a code owner June 17, 2025 10:27

withinfocus reviewed Jun 18, 2025

View reviewed changes

trmartin4 requested changes Jun 18, 2025

View reviewed changes

coroiu commented Jun 19, 2025

View reviewed changes

Hinton reviewed Jun 19, 2025

View reviewed changes


		The IPC framework is split into two main parts:

		### Platform agnostic


		### Platform agnostic

		The platform agnostic parts of the IPC framework are written in Rust and are responsible for the

	The platform agnostic parts of the IPC framework are written in Rust and are responsible for the
	The platform-agnostic parts of the IPC framework are written in Rust and are responsible for the


		### Platform specific

		The platform specific parts of the IPC framework are written in different languages and are

	The platform specific parts of the IPC framework are written in different languages and are
	The platform-specific parts of the IPC framework are written in different languages and are


		### Publish/Subscribe

		This pattern allows consumers to subscribe to specific topics and receive messages published to

	This pattern allows consumers to subscribe to specific topics and receive messages published to
	Allows consumers to subscribe to specific topics and receive messages published to


		### Request/Response

		This pattern allows a consumer to send a request to a producer and receive a response. It is useful

	This pattern allows a consumer to send a request to a producer and receive a response. It is useful
	Allows a consumer to send a request to a producer and receive a response. It is useful


		### Request/Response

		The request/response functionality is built on top of the publish/subscribe message format by using

	The request/response functionality is built on top of the publish/subscribe message format by using
	The request / response functionality is built on top of the publish / subscribe message format by using

	oldest use-case is the communication between the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden
	original use-case is the communication between the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden

	Bitwarden now has a generic framework for IPC provided in the SDK. This framework is used to provide
	Bitwarden now has a generic framework for IPC provided in our [SDK](https://github.com/bitwarden/sdk-internal). This framework is used to provide

	`RpcResponseMessage` and send it back to the consumer using the same topic. The response message
	`RpcResponseMessage` and send it back to the consumer using a topic reserved for responses. The response message

		Bitwarden uses IPC to allow communication between and within certain parts of our clients. The
		oldest use-case is the communication between the Bitwarden browser extension and the Bitwarden

Add IPC deep dive #616

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Add IPC deep dive #616

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coroiu commented Jun 17, 2025

🎟️ Tracking

📔 Objective

⏰ Reminders before review

🦮 Reviewer guidelines

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cloudflare-workers-and-pages bot commented Jun 17, 2025

Deploying contributing-docs with Cloudflare Pages

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github-actions bot commented Jun 17, 2025

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Hinton commented Jun 19, 2025

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