#PHOTO VAULT FOR MAC UPDATE#
#PHOTO VAULT FOR MAC UPGRADE#
#PHOTO VAULT FOR MAC FULL#

I will say that non-CloudKit (iCloud) based storage for an app like this, for me, is on its own reason enough to exercise extreme caution.

These opinions are based on generalized concepts that would apply to any vault app with such a feature.

#PHOTO VAULT FOR MAC FULL#

Full disclosure: I have not investigated this feature as of yet.There is now a ‘cloud backup’ option available (for a fee). Also having an option for custom alphanumeric would be nice to see. Still, having any cap on the length at all seems unnecessary.Instead of having a known length (4 digit) PIN (keyspace of 10^4), we now have any length from 4-8, e.g. 4 digit numeric keyspaces, even ones with a reasonably strong KDF backing them, are pretty much always going to be susceptible to bruteforce. This is a long overdue increase of security for the app.Numeric passcodes can now be *up to* 8 digits long. It does add extra steps though, and falls more in line with what some of the larger apps are doing (e.g. From a security perspective, this doesn’t change things a whole lot because of the fact that you still only need 1 key (the SQLCipher key) to get to the database.

Formerly, once you had derived the ‘media key’, you were good to go for decrypting all data if you knew the structure of the cryptographic media container.Media items are now protected using a unique key per item.

#PHOTO VAULT FOR MAC UPGRADE#

This is a solid security upgrade to PPV as previously one could glean a lot of information about what the encrypted media might be by simply looking at the database (and observing things like album titles).Despite this, it is fully compatible with SQLCipher viewing tools like DB Browser for SQLCipher. The database can be found a directory up from its previous location, with the extension ‘.ecd’ (short for Encrypted Core Data).So don’t assume if you have data from 11.9 that it will be subject to the new approach.ĭatabase location has changed, and is now encrypted. For users who were using PPV before this version, my suspicion is that the app will continue to use the old way, in order to avoid re-encrypting all media.With some effort put into reversing, it is still possible to decrypt the media, especially if you know the PIN or have access to the decrypted keychain.Bruteforcing the PIN is still possible although the time it takes to do so has increased, due to a larger keyspace.The only source of apprehension for me is the cloud based backup which I will discuss in more detail later in the post. Happy to say that across the board, almost all the changes improve security for PPV users.In reading the release notes, as well as doing some of my own tests, I’ve discovered some stuff and wanted to touch on their impact.

#PHOTO VAULT FOR MAC UPDATE#

Update 2: Thanks to a tip from a reader, it was brought to my attention that PPV iOS made some pretty big changes in a recent update (early August 2021 – version 11.9).

Photo vault for mac