Encryption of sensitive data

[junaidferoz]

Description

This PR introduces generic application-layer field-level encryption for sensitive user data using AES-256-GCM. Models declare encryptedFields and encryption/decryption is handled automatically on all reads and writes via hooks on GlobalChangeTrackingPlugin. Key rotation and automatic encryption state sync on startup are also included.

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New User Features

• Sensitive user profile and authentication values are now encrypted at rest in the database
• Encryption can be toggled via ENCRYPTION_ENABLED in .env — the server applies the change automatically on next server start

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New Dev Features

backend/utils/encryption.js

• encrypt(plaintext, key?) — AES-256-GCM encryption with Base64 serialisation; accepts an optional explicit key
• decrypt(value) — always uses the stored key

Model-level

• encryptedFields option on model definitions for declarative field-level encryption — any model that declares it is automatically covered by all bulk operations

Bulk operations

• encryptAllModels(db) / decryptAllModels(db) — bulk encrypt/decrypt all fields across all models that declare encryptedFields

Key rotation

• reEncryptAllModels(db, newKey) / reEncryptValue(value, newKey) — old key read from encryption.key, new key passed explicitly
• backend/scripts/changeEncryptionKey.js + make change_encryption_key NEW_KEY=<hex> — CLI for key rotation without server downtime

Startup sync

• syncEncryptionState(db) — compares ENCRYPTION_ENABLED against encryption.state on startup and triggers encrypt/decrypt automatically if the flag changed

Migration

• 20260612100001-encrypt-user-fields simplified to use encryptAllModels / decryptAllModels — new models with encryptedFields are automatically covered without migration changes

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Improvements

The following user model fields are now encrypted at rest:

Category	Fields
Profile	firstName, lastName, email, initialPassword, salt
Auth	twoFactorOtp, totpSecret, samlNameId
External identity	orcidId, ldapUsername, extId

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Known Limitations

• ENCRYPTION_ENABLED is detected at server startup only — changing the flag requires a restart

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Future Steps

• Extend encryptedFields to other tables as needed — no migration or script changes required
• Add an admin UI toggle for ENCRYPTION_ENABLED that triggers the sync without a restart

[dennis-zyska]

@bingobongomann the code looks good, could you test it locally, if it works, we can merge

[bingobongomann]

@bingobongomann the code looks good, could you test it locally, if it works, we can merge

Looks good. The User Table of a newly set up server is encrypted. New encryption key was generated during the migration.
Frontend works as normal.

[bingobongomann]

Implementation looks good, encryption and decryption work well and are correctly updating the DB when the env is changed.
Left one comment about make change_encryption_key to add optional generation of a new key if none is provided

[bingobongomann]

Looks Good now! Encryption can be updated via command line.

The only thing missing is the decrypted database backup command and then we can merge this

[bingobongomann]

sidecar backup looks good, adding constraints and hooks for BlindIndexes looks good too.
Just need Documentation and some clarification about existing unique fields.

[karimouf]

this is ready @bingobongomann