SecureDrop || 🔐

A local-first encrypted file vault built with Rust + Axum and React + TypeScript + Vite.

SecureDrop encrypts the original filename, original file size, and file bytes into an AES-256-GCM package before writing an opaque .enc object to disk. The interface then decrypts metadata locally for the signed-in user.

🛡️ Highlights

• AES-256-GCM authenticated encryption
• Original filename encrypted at rest
• Random 128-bit storage identifiers
• 100 MB per-file upload limit
• Single local account with Argon2 password hashing
• In-memory authenticated sessions with an 8-hour lifetime
• Drag-and-drop upload
• Search, type filters, sorting, download, and delete confirmation
• Dark and light themes
• Storage distribution donut + category bars
• Security page with at-rest storage comparison
• Responsive desktop/mobile navigation
• Production mode can serve the built React app directly from Axum

↕️ Project Structure

SecureDrop/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs
│   ├── api.rs
│   ├── auth.rs
│   ├── crypto.rs
│   └── storage.rs
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   ├── public/
│   └── vite.config.ts
├── Cargo.toml
├── README.md
└── SECURITY.md

Private runtime files are intentionally excluded from Git:

secret.key
auth.json
secure_files/
frontend/node_modules/
frontend/dist/
target/

🧩 Development

1. Rust backend

From the project root:

cargo run

The backend listens only on:

http://127.0.0.1:3000

2. React frontend

In a second terminal:

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Open:

http://localhost:5173

Vite proxies /api requests to the local Rust service, so no permissive CORS configuration is required.

🗂️ Production-Style Local Run

Build the frontend once:

cd frontend
npm install
npm run build
cd ..

Then start Rust:

cargo run

Open:

http://127.0.0.1:3000

Axum serves frontend/dist and the API from the same local origin.

🚀 First Launch

On the first launch, SecureDrop asks you to create one local account.

• The password is hashed with Argon2.
• auth.json stores the username and password hash, not the plaintext password.
• A successful login creates an in-memory session token.
• Sessions expire after 8 hours and are cleared when the Rust process restarts.
• There is no password recovery in v1.0.

🗄️ Storage Model

A user-facing file such as:

thesis-notes.txt

is stored on disk under a randomized identifier such as:

882ffe11700307d44d6eb4a8a087a817.enc

Inside the encrypted package are:

original filename
original file size
original file bytes

The UI shows the original name only after the local Rust service decrypts the metadata.

⚠️ Important Migration Note

If you move the project to another folder and want to keep existing encrypted files, keep both:

secret.key
secure_files/

Without the original secret.key, previously encrypted objects cannot be decrypted.

If you also want to keep the same local login, copy:

auth.json

These files should never be committed to a public repository.

✅ Verification Before Publishing

cargo check
cd frontend
npm run build
npm run lint

Then test:

• account setup and login
• upload
• download/decrypt
• delete
• duplicate filenames
• search/filter/sort
• 100 MB rejection
• dark/light mode
• backend restart and re-login

🔐 Security Scope

SecureDrop v1.0 is a local, single-account educational vault. It does not claim to provide cloud sync, remote password recovery, multi-user authorization, protection from malware on the host machine, or protection if an attacker can read secret.key.

See SECURITY.md for the threat model and limitations.

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📬 Contact

Fatma Susam

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