Trust & Security

Built for sensitive life-admin

CertaNest is built around private, user-owned document workflows. This page is an honest beta transparency draft and should receive legal and security review before wider public launch.

We describe only safeguards that are actually implemented. Where a protection has limits, we say so plainly below.

How CertaNest protects your data

AES-256-GCM encryption at rest

Files are encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a per-file key (itself wrapped) before the bytes ever reach storage. A file is decrypted in memory only after ownership, trash, revoke/expiry, and access-code checks pass.

Owner-scoped access

Documents, files, reminders, checklists, application packs, exports, and account controls are scoped to the signed-in user.

Validated, scanned uploads

Every upload passes one shared checkpoint: size limit, extension allowlist, server-side magic-byte sniffing (the client's declared type is never trusted), PDF structure checks, and optional malware scanning that fails closed in production.

Expiry & revocation

Every share carries an expiry, and shares plus emergency access can be revoked. Revoked or expired access is blocked server-side — including on the file bytes, not just the page.

Hashed access codes

Optional access codes are hashed with Django's password hasher (PBKDF2). The plaintext code is shown once at creation and never stored or returned again; attempts are rate-limited and lock the resource after repeated failures.

Minimal-fingerprint audit logs

Sensitive actions are recorded in an owner-scoped audit log. IP and user-agent are stored only as salted SHA-256 hashes — never in plain text — and log metadata is sanitized to drop sensitive keys.

Selected-item sharing

Sharing exposes only the items you choose. Your wider vault is never shared by default.

Secret-free exports

Structured exports include document metadata and summaries, not raw storage paths or share access codes.

Honest limitations

Watermarking can help discourage misuse, but no web app can fully prevent screenshots on every device.
Public links remain useful only because of the protections you set — use expiry, revocation, and access codes appropriately.
Do not store full card numbers or banking credentials in CertaNest.
Do not paste passwords or access codes into feedback or support messages.
CertaNest does not provide legal, medical, immigration, tax, or financial advice.

What CertaNest does not do

We do not claim zero-knowledge or 'military-grade' encryption.
We do not claim to make screenshots impossible.
We do not process payments or connect to your bank or card accounts.
We do not sell your documents.
We do not show raw IP addresses in normal internal product views.

Current beta boundaries

Full raw-file archive exports are not available yet.
Frontend token handling is acceptable for development; production should move toward HttpOnly cookie handling.
AI-assisted document processing is not enabled as a third-party file-processing pipeline in this beta.

Responsible disclosure

If you believe you have found a security issue, please report it privately through the Contact page rather than disclosing it publicly. Do not include real access codes, share tokens, or document contents in your report — a clear description and steps to reproduce are enough.

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