Encryption

Encrypt individual items

In beorg you can encrypt notes and any subitems belonging to an item.

It is not possible to encrypt an entire file or enable encryption by default for new items.

When you use encryption for the first time, you'll be asked to enter a password. This password will be stored securely in your iPhone or iPad Keychain.

To decrypt an item or encrypt another item, this stored password will be used. To use the stored password, you'll be asked to authenticate yourself using Touch ID or Face ID. This authentication will last for a maximum of five minutes. If you choose to lock an encrypted item that you have decrypted to view, then you'll need to use Touch ID or Face ID again, even if the five minutes haven't passed.

The encryption used by beorg is called PGP. There are many tools for macOS and other platforms that can decrypt content you've encrypted with beorg. You'll just need to use the item's encryption password.

It is possible to use different passwords for different items. However, only the latest password is stored and accessible via Touch ID or Face ID. If the stored password doesn't work when attempting to decrypt an item, you will be asked to enter it.

If you forget the encryption password, you won't be able to decrypt your content. The stored password isn't saved to iCloud and never leaves your device.

To learn more about encryption in beorg:

beorg uses the GopenGPG library (commit 136c0a5). The framework was built locally and included in the beorg app. For more details about GopenGPG see github.com/ProtonMail/gopenpgp.

GopenGPG is available under the following license:

(The MIT License)

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