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Phase 4 Sprint 4.1 - Field-Level Encryption

Threat Model

• Asset: evidence payload blobs stored in compliance event records and export pipelines.
• Adversary: database snapshot thief, lateral internal reader, key exfiltration attacker.
• Trust boundary: evidence serialization path at write/read in evidence engine.

Attack Vectors Considered

• Raw evidence blob disclosure from DB backups.
• Cross-tenant decryption attempts.
• Root key compromise blast radius across tenants.

Mitigations Implemented

• Added envelope encryption for evidence blobs (vv-evidence-env-v1).
• Data encrypted with per-record DEK (AES-256-GCM).
• DEK wrapped with tenant-derived KEK (HKDF-SHA256 over HSM root key + tenant ID).
• Tenant-bound AAD enforces decryption context integrity.
• Evidence export path decrypts only when tenant context matches envelope tenant.

Residual Risk

• Current HSM provider bootstrap can be configured via environment JSON for dev/CI compatibility.
• Production operations must source root keys from true HSM-backed secret distribution.

Future Improvements

• Replace bootstrap provider with cloud/HSM-native key handle integration.
• Add key-rotation metadata table and automated rewrap workflow.

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Docs | VectorVue | Nexus | Nyxera Labs