orbitdb/docs/ENCRYPTION.md

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# Encryption
OrbitDB features a modular architecture for database encryption. By passing a module to an OrbitDB database, different encryption methods can be employed.
OrbitDB project currently maintains a [SimpleEncryption](https://github.com/orbitdb/simple-encryption) module that can be used to get started with encrypted databases.
**WARNING:** SimpleEncryption is an unaudited encryption module. Use at your own risk.
## How it works
OrbitDB encrypts databases in two layers: encrypting the payload and encrypting the log entry.
Log entry encryption encrypts each log entry fully. Payload encryption encrypts just the value.
This makes it possible to separate users of a database and replicators of a database, ie. an orbitdb peer can replicate a database without being able to decrypt the payloads (=data) of the database.
## Configuring encryption
You can configure OrbitDB to encrypt either the payload data being stored or the entire database.
To ***encrypt payload data only***, specify an encryption module and pass it to OtbiDB via the encryption object using the `data` property:
```
const data = await EncryptionModule()
const encryption = { data }
const db = await orbitdb.open(dbNameOrAddress, { encryption })
```
To ***encrypt the database log entries***, specify an encryption module and pass it to OrbitDB via the encryption object using the `replication` property:
```
const replication = await EncryptionModule()
const encryption = { replication }
const db = await orbitdb.open(dbNameOrAddress, { encryption })
```
To ***encrypt the whole database***, payload data and oplog entries separately, specify an encryption module and pass it to OrbitDB via the encryption object using both the `replication` and `data` properties:
```
const replication = await EncryptionModule()
const data = await EncryptionModule()
const encryption = { replication, data }
const db = await orbitdb.open(dbNameOrAddress, { encryption })
```
## Encrypting Databases
OrbitDB provides simple password-based encryption via an external module called [SimpleEncryption](https://github.com/orbitdb/simple-encryption).
**WARNING:** This is an unaudited encryption module. Use at your own risk.
To install SimpleEncryption:
```
npm i @orbitdb/simple-encryption
```
To use encryption, initiate SimpleEncryption with a password and pass it to OrbitDB when opening your database:
```js
import { SimpleEncryption } from '@orbitdb/simple-encryption'
const replication = await SimpleEncryption({ password: 'hello' })
const data = await SimpleEncryption({ password: 'world' })
const encryption = { data, replication }
const db = await orbitdb.open(dbNameOrAddress, { encryption })
```
If you wish to use another encryption type, simply replace SimpleEncryption with the module of your choice.
## Custom Encryption
To implement a custom encryption module for OrbitDB, expose encrypt and decrypt functions:
```
const CustomEncryption = async () => {
const encrypt = (value) => {
// return encrypted value
}
const decrypt = (value) => {
// return decrypted value
}
return {
encrypt,
decrypt
}
}
export default CustomEncryption
```