George Lambert
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The cover stays page 1. Numbered chapters now start at What Verae provides. The TOC lists Executive summary at page 2.
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<title>4. Encryption at rest — IPFS blocks and Peergos — Making yourself audit-ready with Verae DataCubes</title>
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<img class="logo" src="_static/VeraeFullLogo.png" alt="Logo of Making yourself audit-ready with Verae DataCubes"/>
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<p class="blurb">Tools for storage, communications, timestamping, verification, and audit — not a certificate.</p>
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<script>document.getElementById('searchbox').style.display = "block"</script><h3>Navigation</h3>
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<p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Contents</span></p>
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<ul class="current">
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="what-verae-provides.html">1. What Verae provides — and what it does not</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="datacube-server.html">2. The Verae DataCube Server Solution</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="data-in-transit.html">3. Secure communications — data in transit</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1 current"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">4. Encryption at rest — IPFS blocks and Peergos</a><ul>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-problem">4.1. The problem</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#content-addressed-blocks">4.2. Content-addressed blocks</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#peergos-on-top-of-ipfs">4.3. Peergos on top of IPFS</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#tamper-evident-restore">4.4. Tamper-evident restore</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#append-only-at-the-cube-layer">4.5. Append-only at the cube layer</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#what-a-disk-operator-sees">4.6. What a disk operator sees</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#what-this-does-and-does-not-satisfy">4.7. What this does, and does not, satisfy</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="timestamped-receipts.html">5. Global timestamped receipts</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="peergos-eu-evaluations.html">6. Peergos security evaluations in Europe</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="global-timestamping.html">7. Verae global timestamping — a cross-blockchain receipt</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="iceberg-archive.html">8. Write-once Iceberg archive</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="architecture.html">9. Architecture for an audit interview</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="baa-dpa.html">10. BAAs, DPAs, and ciphertext without host keys</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="checklist.html">11. Audit-ready checklist</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="howto.html">12. How to use this briefing</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="bio-james-garfinkel.html">13. James H. Garfinkel</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="bio-stuart-haber.html">14. Stuart Haber</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="bio-george-lambert.html">15. George Lambert</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="contact.html">16. Verae Inc — contact</a></li>
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</ul>
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<div class="relations">
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<h3>Related Topics</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="index.html">Documentation overview</a><ul>
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<li>Previous: <a href="data-in-transit.html" title="previous chapter"><span class="section-number">3. </span>Secure communications — data in transit</a></li>
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<li>Next: <a href="timestamped-receipts.html" title="next chapter"><span class="section-number">5. </span>Global timestamped receipts</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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</ul>
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<section id="encryption-at-rest-ipfs-blocks-and-peergos">
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<h1><span class="section-number">4. </span>Encryption at rest — IPFS blocks and Peergos<a class="headerlink" href="#encryption-at-rest-ipfs-blocks-and-peergos" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
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<section id="the-problem">
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<h2><span class="section-number">4.1. </span>The problem<a class="headerlink" href="#the-problem" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
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<p>Bytes that are no longer moving still have to live somewhere: a
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disk, a replica, a backup, a cold archive. The people who operate
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those surfaces — hosting providers, backup operators, someone
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with a snapshot credential — are rarely the same people who are
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authorized to read the records. A design that stores plaintext on
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those surfaces is a design that makes every disk operator a
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reader. A design that stores ciphertext, but lets an operator
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swap a block without detection, is a design that fails integrity
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even if it keeps confidentiality.</p>
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<p>The Verae DataCube Server Solution stores <strong>data at rest</strong> as
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<strong>encrypted, content-addressed IPFS blocks</strong>, with <strong>Peergos</strong>
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verifying hashes on the way in and the way out.</p>
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</section>
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<section id="content-addressed-blocks">
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<h2><span class="section-number">4.2. </span>Content-addressed blocks<a class="headerlink" href="#content-addressed-blocks" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
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<p>IPFS names a block by a cryptographic hash of its contents (a
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Content Identifier, or CID). Two properties follow immediately:</p>
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<ul class="simple">
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<li><p>If the bits change, the name changes. There is no such thing as
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“the same CID, different payload” under a collision-resistant
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hash.</p></li>
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<li><p>A client that asked for CID X and received bytes whose hash is
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not X <strong>knows</strong> it was given the wrong object.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<p>That is the definition of a <strong>tamper-evident</strong> store. It does not
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prevent a hostile replica from refusing to serve a block
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(availability). It does prevent a hostile replica from silently
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serving a substitute and hoping nobody notices (integrity).</p>
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</section>
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<section id="peergos-on-top-of-ipfs">
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<h2><span class="section-number">4.3. </span>Peergos on top of IPFS<a class="headerlink" href="#peergos-on-top-of-ipfs" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
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<p>Peergos is not “IPFS with a folder UI.” It is an encrypted
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filesystem — a <strong>cryptree</strong> — whose nodes and file chunks are
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stored as IPFS blocks. The properties that matter for an
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audit-ready DataCube are:</p>
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<ul class="simple">
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<li><p><strong>Client-side encryption.</strong> Symmetric keys for chunks live with
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the customer, not on the storage host. A host with disk access
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sees padded, encrypted chunks and random labels, not filenames,
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not sibling names, not a social graph.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong>Hash verification.</strong> Peergos <strong>verifies the hash</strong> of every
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block it reads from or writes to IPFS. A restored cube is not
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“whatever was on the tape.” It is a set of CIDs re-fetched and
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re-checked.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong>Signed writes.</strong> Updates are signed. An unsigned rewrite is
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not a valid Peergos write.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong>Independent chunk keys.</strong> Chunks (up to 5 MiB, padded) are
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encrypted with random 256-bit keys (Salsa20-Poly1305 in the
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published design), not with convergent encryption that would
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leak equality of plaintext across users.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong>CHAMP</strong> places encrypted cryptree nodes under random 32-byte
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labels, so the storage host cannot walk the directory tree by
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name.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong>Sharing</strong> uses hybrid encryption (X25519 plus ML-KEM-1024 in
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current Peergos) so a capability can be given to another user
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without placing the chunk key on the server.</p></li>
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</ul>
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</section>
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<section id="tamper-evident-restore">
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<h2><span class="section-number">4.4. </span>Tamper-evident restore<a class="headerlink" href="#tamper-evident-restore" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
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<p>“Backup” in this architecture does not mean a second plaintext
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copy in a different building. It means:</p>
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<ol class="arabic simple">
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<li><p>the CIDs that constitute a cube are known;</p></li>
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<li><p>the encrypted blocks for those CIDs exist on more than one
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replica;</p></li>
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<li><p>a restore <strong>re-fetches</strong> the blocks and <strong>re-verifies</strong> the
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hashes;</p></li>
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<li><p>the customer, holding keys, decrypts locally.</p></li>
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</ol>
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<p>If step 3 fails, the restore fails closed. That is the opposite
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of a backup product that “helpfully” returns the last good
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plaintext it had. Helpfulness of that kind is how silent
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corruption and silent substitution enter an evidence set.</p>
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</section>
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<section id="append-only-at-the-cube-layer">
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<h2><span class="section-number">4.5. </span>Append-only at the cube layer<a class="headerlink" href="#append-only-at-the-cube-layer" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
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<p>Peergos itself uses signed updates and immutable blocks. The
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Verae DataCube adds an <strong>application-level chain</strong>: a JSONL
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history in which each record hashes the previous record. Dual
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hashing (for example SHA-256 plus BLAKE2b or BLAKE3) is used so
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that a future weakness in one function does not silently rewrite
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history.</p>
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<p>These two layers must not be conflated in an audit interview:</p>
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<ul class="simple">
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<li><p><strong>IPFS / Peergos</strong> prove that the bytes retrieved are the bytes
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named by the CID, and that names and sizes are not in the
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clear on the host.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong>The cube chain</strong> proves that the organization’s own history
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of writes is append-only at the application layer.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<p>Both are needed. Neither is a SOC 2 report.</p>
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</section>
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<section id="what-a-disk-operator-sees">
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<h2><span class="section-number">4.6. </span>What a disk operator sees<a class="headerlink" href="#what-a-disk-operator-sees" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
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<p>If keys never leave the client or the customer’s HSM, a disk
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operator, a VM snapshot operator, and an offsite replica operator
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see <strong>opaque hashed ciphertext</strong>. They do not see PHI, they do
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not see document titles, they do not see the graph of who shared
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what with whom.</p>
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<p>That fact <strong>changes the Business Associate / processor
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conversation</strong>. It does not automatically end it. Usernames, IP
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addresses, billing identity, and support logs can still be
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personal data. Chapter 11 takes that up.</p>
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</section>
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<section id="what-this-does-and-does-not-satisfy">
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<h2><span class="section-number">4.7. </span>What this does, and does not, satisfy<a class="headerlink" href="#what-this-does-and-does-not-satisfy" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
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<p>For HIPAA encryption of ePHI <strong>at rest</strong>, for SOC 2 CC6
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encryption of stored data, and for ISO 27001 Annex A cryptography
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and storage, this is the <strong>technical control</strong>: ciphertext on
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disk, keys with the customer, hash-checked restore.</p>
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<p>It does <strong>not</strong> by itself satisfy:</p>
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<ul class="simple">
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<li><p>a <strong>key-custody policy</strong> (who can unwrap, where the HSM lives,
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how a lost key is declared);</p></li>
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<li><p>a <strong>restore-test procedure</strong> with a dated ticket proving
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someone actually did it last quarter;</p></li>
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<li><p><strong>retention and legal-hold</strong> rules (those require the
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write-once archive in Chapter 9, plus lawyers);</p></li>
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<li><p><strong>physical</strong> security of the machines, which still belongs in
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the organization’s ISMS or HIPAA facility controls.</p></li>
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</ul>
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</section>
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</section>
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