🔐 SecureVault

A modern, secure file storage application built with the MERN stack. Files are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before being stored on Cloudinary, ensuring end-to-end security.

✨ Features

• AES-256-GCM Encryption — Files are encrypted in memory before upload
• Cloudinary Storage — Scalable cloud storage for encrypted files
• Google Authentication — Sign in with Google via Identity Services
• Email/Password Auth — Traditional JWT-based authentication
• Password-Protected Files — Optional per-file password protection
• File Preview — In-browser preview for images, PDFs, and text files
• Dark Mode — Modern Google Drive-inspired UI with dark/light themes
• Responsive Design — Works on desktop and mobile devices

🛠 Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19, Vite, Tailwind CSS v4
Backend	Node.js, Express.js
Database	MongoDB (Mongoose)
Storage	Cloudinary (raw resource type)
Auth	JWT, bcryptjs, Google Identity
Encryption	AES-256-GCM (Node.js crypto)

📁 Project Structure

secureVault/
├── client/                 # React frontend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/     # Reusable UI components
│   │   ├── context/        # Auth & Theme contexts
│   │   ├── pages/          # Login, Register, Dashboard, Profile
│   │   └── services/       # API service layer
│   └── vite.config.js
├── server/                 # Express backend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── config/         # DB & Cloudinary config
│   │   ├── controllers/    # Auth, Google Auth, File controllers
│   │   ├── middleware/      # JWT auth middleware
│   │   ├── models/         # User & File Mongoose models
│   │   ├── routes/         # API routes
│   │   └── utils/          # Encryption utilities
│   └── .env.example        # Environment template
└── .gitignore

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• MongoDB Atlas account (or local MongoDB)
• Cloudinary account
• Google Cloud Console project (for OAuth)

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/secureVault.git
cd secureVault

2. Install Dependencies

# Install server dependencies
cd server
npm install

# Install client dependencies
cd ../client
npm install

3. Configure Environment Variables

Copy the example env file and fill in your credentials:

cd server
cp .env.example .env

Edit server/.env with your values:

PORT=5000
MONGODB_URI=mongodb+srv://...
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
ENCRYPTION_KEY=your_64_char_hex_key

# Cloudinary
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret

# Google OAuth
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_google_client_id

4. Run the Application

# Terminal 1 — Start the server
cd server
npm run dev

# Terminal 2 — Start the client
cd client
npm run dev

The client runs on http://localhost:5173 and the server on http://localhost:5000.

🔒 Security

• Files are encrypted with AES-256-GCM in memory before upload — Cloudinary never sees plaintext data.
• Passwords are hashed with bcryptjs (12 salt rounds).
• Authentication uses JWT tokens with configurable expiry.
• Google OAuth uses ID token verification — no Google passwords are stored.
• Environment variables keep all credentials out of source code.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.