ANN: ForestDB encryption now available on iOS/Mac master branch

[Jens Alfke]

The iOS/Mac master branch now supports encrypting ForestDB-based databases, using exactly the same API you use for SQLite-based ones. The nice thing is you don’t need to link in any custom libraries like SQLCipher; the encryption is hooked into the existing ForestDB implementation.

Implementation details are here if you want to know about the crypto. (tl;dr: It’s AES-256, like SQLCipher.)

Needless to say, this is preliminary/experimental, so use it at your own risk. I’m pretty confident in the code, but it hasn’t been tested much yet, and there are lots of other big changes on the master branch. If you’re conservative, wait until 1.2 is released in a few months. But if you want to test it out, I’d appreciate the help.

—Jens

[Brendan Duddridge]

That's GREAT Jens!

One thing in the wiki is:

It's not yet possible to add encryption to an existing database, or to change or remove the key afterwards.

Do you think that will be possible eventually with CBL. These are things I currently allow customers to do with my current (non-CBL) app.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Jens Alfke]

On Jul 29, 2015, at 6:07 PM, Brendan Duddridge <bren...@gmail.com> wrote:

It's not yet possible to add encryption to an existing database, or to change or remove the key afterwards.

Do you think that will be possible eventually with CBL. These are things I currently allow customers to do with my current (non-CBL) app.

File an issue, please. It would be quite easy to add to SQLite, somewhat more difficult with ForestDB but still doable.

—Jens

[Brendan Duddridge]

Issue added:

https://github.com/couchbase/couchbase-lite-ios/issues/836

Thanks!

Brendan