Skip to main content

​
Security Overview

VecLabs is built on a foundational principle: your data should be unreadable to anyone except you - including VecLabs. This page explains how that guarantee is implemented technically.

​
The core guarantee

When you store vectors in VecLabs:
  1. Your vectors are encrypted client-side before leaving the SDK
  2. The encryption key is derived from your wallet keypair - a key VecLabs never has
  3. VecLabs stores only encrypted ciphertext - even if our storage layer were compromised, an attacker would see random bytes
  4. The Merkle root on Solana is a hash of your vector IDs - not the vectors themselves
VecLabs cannot read your vectors. This is not a policy - it is enforced by the encryption architecture.

​
Encryption details

PropertyValue
AlgorithmAES-256-GCM
Key size256 bits
ModeAuthenticated encryption (provides both confidentiality and integrity)
Key derivationPBKDF2-SHA256 from wallet keypair
IV/NonceRandomly generated per encryption operation
Authentication tag128 bits, verified on decryption
AES-256-GCM is the same encryption standard used by HTTPS, Signal, and most modern security systems. It provides:
  • Confidentiality - encrypted data cannot be read without the key
  • Integrity - any tampering with the ciphertext is detected and decryption fails
  • Authenticity - you can verify the data was encrypted by someone with your key

​
Key management

Your encryption key is derived from your Solana wallet keypair using PBKDF2-SHA256. This means:
  • The key is deterministic - the same wallet always produces the same encryption key
  • The key never leaves your machine - only the encrypted data is sent to storage
  • VecLabs never sees the key - the derivation happens inside the SDK on your machine
  • Key backup = wallet backup - if you back up your wallet keypair, you can always decrypt your data
Your wallet keypair is stored locally at the path you configure (default: ~/.config/solana/id.json or auto-generated in your project directory). It is never transmitted to VecLabs servers. 
// Wallet path is local - never sent to VecLabs
const sv = new SolVec({
  network: "devnet",
  wallet: "/path/to/your/keypair.json", // stays on your machine
});

​
What VecLabs can and cannot see

DataVecLabs can see it?
Your raw vectors (the numbers)❌ No - AES-256-GCM encrypted
Your metadata (text, JSON)❌ No - encrypted with vectors
Your vector IDs✅ Yes - IDs are hashed into the Merkle tree
The Merkle root✅ Yes - public on Solana
Your wallet public key✅ Yes - used for Solana transactions
Your wallet private key❌ No - never leaves your machine
Query vectors⚠️ Temporarily - processed in-memory, not stored

​
On-chain data

The Solana Anchor program stores exactly one thing per write operation: a 32-byte SHA-256 Merkle root derived from your vector IDs. The Merkle root is:
  • A hash of hashes - you cannot reverse-engineer vector IDs from it
  • Public - anyone can view it on Solana Explorer
  • Permanent - Solana state is immutable once written
  • Cheap - one transaction costs $0.00025
The on-chain state tells the world: “a collection with this Merkle root exists and was written at this time.” It does not reveal what’s in that collection.

​
Transport security

All communication between the SDK and VecLabs servers uses TLS 1.3. Data in transit is encrypted regardless of the client-side encryption layer.

​
Shadow Drive security

Vectors are stored on Shadow Drive (Solana’s decentralized storage layer). The data stored is:
  • AES-256-GCM ciphertext - unintelligible without your encryption key
  • Stored across a decentralized network of nodes - no single point of failure or compromise
  • Replicated for durability - Shadow Drive maintains multiple copies

​
Threat model

VecLabs is designed to protect against:
ThreatProtection
VecLabs employee reads your dataClient-side encryption - we can’t
VecLabs servers are compromisedEncrypted ciphertext is all an attacker gets
Storage layer is compromisedSame - all storage holds ciphertext
Data is tampered withAES-GCM authentication tags + on-chain Merkle verification
Man-in-the-middle attackTLS 1.3 on all connections
Replay attackSolana transaction ordering and timestamps
VecLabs does not protect against:
  • Compromise of your local machine (attacker could access your wallet keypair)
  • Compromise of your application process (attacker could access in-memory query vectors)
  • Loss of your wallet keypair with no backup (data would be permanently unreadable)

​
Next steps

Encryption Deep Dive

Technical details of the AES-256-GCM implementation.

Wallet Management

How wallets are generated, stored, and backed up.

Data Storage

Where your data lives and how Shadow Drive works.