Secure Document Vault
A zero-trust encrypted document vault with AES-256-GCM authenticated encryption, role-based access control, chunked streaming, device trust, and immutable audit logging.
Secure Digital Document Vault is a zero-trust encrypted storage platform built for high-assurance data privacy. Files are encrypted client-side or during chunked ingestion using AES-256-GCM with unique cryptographic nonces before persisting to disk. The system enforces strict role-based access control (RBAC), password-derived keys with Argon2 hashing, device verification, and append-only audit logging.
Traditional cloud storage solutions often store files in plaintext or decrypt them on the server without strict per-file key isolation, leaving sensitive documents vulnerable to internal data leaks and server breaches. The goal was to engineer a zero-trust vault with end-to-end cryptographic guarantees and complete access provenance.
Implement AES-256-GCM authenticated encryption for all uploaded artifacts with isolated initialization vectors (IVs). Combine Argon2 password hashing and PyJWT authentication to verify user authorization and device trust, while persisting structured access logs to guarantee complete auditability.
FastAPI backend · chunked file ingestion & MIME validator · AES-256-GCM encryption engine · Argon2 key derivation · PostgreSQL & SQLAlchemy ORM · PyJWT session & device management · append-only audit logging layer.
Technical Challenges
Streaming large encrypted payloads without blowing up memory limits required architecting a chunked encryption stream where blocks are validated and encrypted on the fly while maintaining cryptographic integrity and authentication tags.
Engineering Learnings
Security is an architectural discipline, not an afterthought. Enforcing cryptographic invariants and strict RBAC boundaries at the API layer eliminates accidental exposure vectors completely.