diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/reference/storage-secrets.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/reference/storage-secrets.rst | 37 |
1 files changed, 37 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/reference/storage-secrets.rst b/docs/reference/storage-secrets.rst new file mode 100644 index 00000000..039075f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/reference/storage-secrets.rst @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +.. _storage-secrets: + +Storage secrets +=============== + +Soledad randomly generates secrets that are used to derive encryption keys for +protecting all data that is stored in the server and in the local storage. +These secrets are themselves encrypted using a key derived from the user’s +passphrase, and saved locally on disk. + +The encrypted secrets are stored in a local file in the user's in a JSON +structure that looks like this:: + + encrypted = { + 'version': 2, + 'kdf': 'scrypt', + 'kdf_salt': <base64 encoded salt>, + 'kdf_length': <the length of the derived key>, + 'cipher': <a code indicating the cipher used for encryption>, + 'length': <the length of the plaintext>, + 'iv': <the initialization vector>, + 'secrets': <base64 encoding of ciphertext>, + } + +When a client application first wants to use Soledad, it must provide the +user’s password to unlock the storage secrets. Currently, the storage secrets +are shared among all devices with access to a particular user's Soledad +database. + +The storage secrets are currently backed up in the provider (encrypted with the +user's passphrase) for the case where the user looses or resets her device (see +:ref:`shared-database` for more information). There are plans to make this +feature optional, allowing for less trust in the provider while increasing the +responsibility of the user. + +If the user looses her passphrase, there is currently no way of recovering her +data. |