CipherSweet is a backend library developed by Paragon Initiative Enterprises for implementing searchable field-level encryption.

Before adding searchable encryption support to your project, make sure you understand the appropriate threat model for your use case. At a minimum, you will want your application and database server to be running on separate cloud instances / virtual machines. (Even better: Separate bare-metal hardware.)

CipherSweet Features at a Glance

• Encryption that targets the 256-bit security level (using AEAD modes with extended nonces to minimize users' rekeying burden).
• Compliance-Specific Protocol Support. Multiple backends to satisfy a diverse range of compliance requirements. More can be added as needed:
  • BoringCrypto uses libsodium, the de facto standard encryption library for software developers. Algorithm details.
  • FIPSCrypto only uses the cryptographic algorithms covered by the FIPS 140-2 recommendations to avoid auditing complexity. Algorithm details.
• Key separation. Each column is encrypted with a different key, all of which are derived from your master encryption key using secure key-splitting algorithms.
• Key management integration. CipherSweet supports integration with Key Management solutions for storing and retrieving the master encryption key.
• Multi-Tenant Encrypted Data Storage. The latest version of CipherSweet is safe to use in a multi-tenant encrypted data setup, where each client encrypts their data under a different key.
• Database Record Integrity. CipherSweet protects against chosen-ciphertext and confused deputy attacks, even in multi-tenant configurations.
• Searchable Encryption. CipherSweet uses blind indexing with the fuzzier and Bloom filter strategies to allow fast ciphertext search with minimal data leakage.
  • Each blind index on each column uses a distinct key from your encryption key and each other blind index key.
  • This doesn't allow for LIKE operators or regular expression searching, but it does allow you to index transformations (e.g. substrings) of the plaintext, hashed under a distinct key.
  • Blind indexes do not support inequality searches.
• Adaptability. CipherSweet has a database- and product-agnostic design, so it should be easy to write an adapter to use CipherSweet in your preferred programming language and/or framework.
• File/stream encryption. CipherSweet has an API for encrypting files that provides authenticated encryption that defeats TOCTOU attacks with minimal overhead. Learn more.

How to Install and Use CipherSweet

The CipherSweet documentation is available online. Select your language below to get started.

• PHP
• Node.js / JavaScript
• Coming soon: Java
• Coming soon: .NET (C#)
• Coming soon: Rust
• Coming soon: Python

CipherSweet Specification and Internals

• Security Properties and Threat Model
• Internals
• Frequently Asked Questions

Commercial Support

If your company uses this library in their products or services, you may be interested in purchasing a support contract from Paragon Initiative Enterprises.