Enterprise-grade encryption solution<\/h1>\n

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Nextcloud offers a supremely easy to use, well integrated file sync and share solution with an uniquely layered approach to security. Our solution delivers deep infrastructure integration with support for nearly any storage technology and combines it with powerful server-side encryption and end-to-end encryption in the clients, both of which can be applied in a granular way.<\/p>\n

Rather than making it an either-or choice, businesses can rely on utmost security where it is needed but keep collaborative online document editing and full-text search on the server over the rest of the stored data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

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Use cases<\/h3>

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Users can access data on a FTP drive shared with another company; while data stored on an external S3 compatible object storage could be encrypted using server-side encryption so the storage provider has no way to compromise their security.<\/p>\n

And with the Nextcloud File Access Control feature, files from the HR department can always be enforced to be end-to-end encrypted on their clients, protecting their data from even the worst case of a full server breach. Similarly, sensitive research, customer information or strategic documents can be guaranteed to be kept even from server administrators.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\n\n

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Technical background<\/h1>\n

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Below we cover some of the basics of our design. Download our whitepaper for more details.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

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Enabling encryption<\/h3>

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The encryption is based upon an asymmetric cryptographic system. Every user has exactly one private and public key pair.<\/p>\n

The key generation process is designed to keep the contents of the private key from the server while storing it security so it can be synced to other devices the user owns. Some other properties of the process:<\/p>\n

The user creates an identity which is signed by the server (using a certificate) and associated with their public key. Users can only have one identity, other clients will refuse to accept a new certificate following the Trust on First Use (TOFU) model. This protects data from a malicious server which tries to generate a new identity for a target user and get clients to re-encrypt the data against it.<\/p>\n

In case a user loses their device they can easily recover by using the mnemonic passphrase. The mnemonic passphrase can also be shown in the client settings in case the user forgets their mnemonic. Displaying the mnemonic requires the user to enter their PIN\/fingerprint again on mobile devices.<\/p>\n

Sharing on folder-level granularity must be possible to individual users. No passwords should need to be exchanged for sharing. Key exchange should be auditable. Adding devices should be easy and new devices should have access to all previously encrypted data.<\/p>\n

The protocol needs to support versioning in case of future changes to metadata or crypto handling. Design should support a hardware security module, giving strong authentication, tamper-resistance and a complete audit trail.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\t<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\n\n

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Encrypting files<\/h3>\n

Creating an end-to-end encrypted folder is done by flagging an empty folder as end-to-end encrypted, creating metadata, encrypting and uploading it. The process is protected by locking, with the client requesting a lock from the server and releasing it again after all changes are finished and uploaded.<\/p>\n

Files are each encrypted with their own, unique key, which is stored in the metadata file. All data in the metadata file is, in turn, securely encrypted and files names and directory structures are also hidden from the server using a unique UUID as name for each file.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11698","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n