Use password to encrypt app data

[abnjo]

First: really grateful for this wonderful app, and your wonderful support for bugs etc

The problem is that the database is entirely readable with any other apps that are on the device, and given its in an easy access location, it creates a bit of a problem,

Encryption is a double edged sword since adding encryption will break third party sync mechanisms,backup and restore

Though if you make the encryption based on the password, and give an option to people to encrypt or decrypt their databases, for those who want,i think this would be a good solution,

I know this is a hobby project and cryptography and stuff is a big thing to ask, but i hope you can do something about this.

[Demizo]

Thank you! The app data is stored in the Android/data folder (not the internal app storage). This does mean that other apps can access it. However, only apps with the ability to read all storage will have access to it. This permission is largely reserved for file management apps nowadays. I made this decision to ensure the data can always be recovered.

Like you said, this data could still be encrypted. If the user enables password protection this could be used to also encrypt the database and images.

My rationale for not making this a priority is that apps with access to all files should be trusted. They are likely file managers in which case they should probably have access to the app's data anyways. However, I do agree with the concern and more protection for these private files obviously wouldn't hurt!

[b04dan]

I would also like to thank you for this beautiful app. It's exactly what I was looking for!

In my opinion, the only thing missing to make it perfect is at rest encryption. Diaries often contain quite sensitive information, and it would be very nice to be sure that only I have access to it. Of course, Android is a pretty secure system, and the likelihood of malware or exploits that want to extract my diary is quite low😁 However, I personally find it difficult to write my thoughts with peace of mind when I know they will be stored in plaintext and, for example, if someone gets my phone while it's unlocked, they can easily access such sensitive information through the file manager or adb.

Of course, this is complete paranoia, and I understand that it is not so easy to implement, and perhaps this issue will not be a priority. I just wanted to share my perspective and say thank you!

[est61]

This has been on my mind as well while ive been using the app, but just havent had time to write up an issue about this. Although i appreciate the app lock, the local DB can still be read if someone/something gets access to the device’s file system.

It would be great if the DB could encrypt/decrypt automatically as the app locks and unlocks, using something like SQLCipher or a similar lightweight encryption layer. That way, the data only becomes accessible when the app is open and authenticated.

Honestly, this would be a big step up for privacy. As time passes and more data is inserted, it becomes more of a priority to know that its safe.

[Demizo]

Thinking about this more, the app data is much more stable nowadays. It would probably be okay to just move the app's storage from the exposed and accessible folder to the internal folder that only the app (and root) can view. The only reason it was exposed was to make things easy to recover in case something went wrong, but those times have hopefully passed.

This would close the gap of malicious apps with file access from being able to view logs.