Scheduled
4 min read By NT²
Bootstrap QR stays off the web
Tech
If a proximity bootstrap can live in an ordinary https link, the authenticator has already toured browser history, referrers, and OS camera → URL launch paths.
Tagged: security
22 posts
Scheduled
5 min read By NT²
Share file, deep link, and machine-handoff passphrase
Tech
Ciphertext and the secret that opens it should not travel as one convenient email. NT² splits carriers—file or link—from OOB passphrase delivery, and treats Strong as machine-handoff.
Scheduled
5 min read By NT²
Delayed legacy release is not password recovery
Tech
Estate and emergency access tempt products to hold a second key “just in case.” NT² refuses that oracle. Legacy is a sealed package on a delay—not a support console unlock.
Scheduled
8 min read By NT²
Threat model, 2026: browsers and extensions
Tech
Threat models age with browsers. This 2026 refresh keeps the residual risks named—XSS, unlocked theft, hostile extensions, origin supply chain—and checks which defenses still hold when the client world moves.
Scheduled
3 min read By NT²
Verified trust is cryptographic, not a button
Stories
If the app will not let you tap Mark verified, that is intentional. Trust in NT² is tied to events that can be checked, not moods that cannot.
Scheduled
8 min read By NT²
XSS steals sessions elsewhere; here keys are non-extractable
Tech
A vault that advertises invincibility is selling theater. NT² names the residual risks—XSS while unlocked, a stolen unlocked device, a hostile extension—and designs so those failures do not also become password oracles or exportable key dumps.
Scheduled
7 min read By NT²
Security veto is a role, not a vibe
Tech
Agents can draft patches and greenlights. They cannot own the decision that a vault still refuses password escrow, extractable keys, or a “helpful” recovery desk. Security veto is a role with authority—not a mood in chat.
Scheduled
7 min read By NT²
Specs before agents write code
Tech
An agent that codes from a vague prompt will invent a product. An agent that codes from a written contract will ship the slice you approved—or stop where the contract ends.
Scheduled
8 min read By NT²
What the Workers are allowed to see
Tech
Zero-knowledge is not a slogan about HTTPS. It is a permission list for the edge: what Workers may store, route, and bill for—and what they are never allowed to learn.
Scheduled
8 min read By NT²
Wrong password must fail closed
Tech
Unlock is not a best-effort decrypt of everything you own. NT² checks a small local verifier first. Wrong password fails closed: the vault stays locked, and the UI stays honest.
Scheduled
9 min read By NT²
CBF is how structured fields leave RAM
Tech
A credential is a map of fields while you edit it. The moment those fields must survive a lock, a restart, or a replica, they need a portable ciphertext shape—not a JSON dump waiting for the next reader.
Scheduled
9 min read By NT²
Auto-lock is a memory hygiene problem
Tech
Encryption at rest is incomplete if the decrypted key handle outlives the unlocked session. NT² treats auto-lock as memory hygiene: non-extractable CryptoKeys, in-memory only, cleared on idle, refresh, and tab close.
Scheduled
9 min read By NT²
Selective SSI — not a general DIDComm wallet
Tech
Self-sovereign identity is useful when you take the parts that fit a zero-knowledge vault—and refuse the parts that turn the product into a general DID wallet.
Scheduled
8 min read By NT²
Share passphrase ≠ master password
Tech
A share that opens with the same secret that unlocks the vault is not a handoff. It is a remote unlock of everything. NT² keeps those boundaries apart.
Scheduled
9 min read By NT²
Challenge–response, not bearer email
Tech
Cloud services often treat an email inbox as the root of an account. An encrypted vault needs a different proof: control of a signing key, shown by answering a one-time challenge.
Scheduled
10 min read By NT²
The account database must not become a password oracle
Tech
An account table can contain no plaintext vault items and still create a dangerous password-testing surface. We removed the columns that could turn a database copy into an offline guessing or recovery system.
Scheduled
9 min read By NT²
No password reset, by design
Tech
“Contact support to reset your password” sounds reassuring. For an encrypted vault, it also reveals who ultimately controls access. NT² chooses a harder promise: recovery material stays with you, not our help desk.
9 min read By NT²
Unlocking a local vault is not logging in to the cloud
Tech
One screen can make two security events look like a single login. We keep them separate because opening encrypted data and proving an identity to a server are different jobs with different risks.
9 min read By NT²
One key per object: envelope encryption inside NT² Vault
Tech
A vault can encrypt everything with one key and still claim that its data is encrypted. We wanted a more useful boundary: each item and attachment gets its own content encryption key, while the vault key protects those keys.
9 min read By NT²
The KDF salt stays on your device
Tech
A salt is not a secret. Still, where it lives changes who can assemble a password-guessing system. NT² keeps the KDF salt and password verifier with the local vault, so unlocking begins and ends on the device.
10 min read By NT²
How one person builds and operates NT² Vault with AI agents
Tech
The useful question is not whether an AI agent can write code. It is how to give agents enough context and autonomy to move quickly while keeping product decisions, security boundaries, releases, and customer-facing actions under explicit human control.
6 min read By NT²
Why host a heavy server when a PWA can do everything locally? Built a zero-server privacy vault.
Tech
In the era of massive cloud-first applications, we often overlook a powerful alternative: the Progressive Web App (PWA). Why maintain a heavy, expensive, and potentially vulnerable server infrastructure when the modern browser is capable of running a full-featured, secure, and high-performance application entirely on the user's device?