Documentation

End-to-End Encryption

Protect your sensitive documents with military-grade encryption.

Overview

LifeVault provides end-to-end encryption for your most sensitive documents. Encryption happens locally on your device — your keys never leave your machine.

Zero-Knowledge

Even if you sync encrypted files to the cloud, your provider cannot read them. Only you hold the decryption keys.

How It Works

LifeVault uses AES-256-GCM for file encryption and Argon2id for key derivation. The encryption flow is:

1

Your master password is derived into an encryption key using Argon2id

2

Each file gets a unique random nonce (IV)

3

File contents are encrypted with AES-256-GCM

4

Encrypted file + nonce are stored; original is securely deleted

Key Management

Your encryption keys are stored in your system's secure keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Store, or Linux Secret Service). You can also export a recovery key for backup.

# Export recovery key
lifevault keys export --format "recovery" --output "~/recovery-key.txt"
Last updated: Nov 14, 2023