Couchbase Lite Encryption - Java

Mobile Couchbase Lite
1

I want to get some info on these encryption areas:

  • From an application security aspect, I’d like to know more about Couchbase Lite encryption. Is SEE (SQLite Encryption Extension) still being used in 3.x.x releases?

  • I’m using the Java SDK to interact with Couchbase Lite, I have a workflow in which I need to encrypt an existing non-encrypted database if it’s not encrypted and if it’s already encrypted it just needs to be opened. I’m currently catching the CouchbaseLiteException during database creation to identify if the database is encrypted (couchbaseLiteException.getCode() == 20). Is this a reliable check to perform conditional encryption/opening as there are no other API’s to check the encryption state?

  • How’s the forward compatibility for encrypted Couchbase lite databases?

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You are correct, there are no APIs to check the encryption status of a database. You will get an exception if you try to open an encrypted database without its key.

As far as forward compatibility is concerned, we haven’t changed the algorithm being used since it was introduced in 2.x so any version should be able to handle any db, except in any other instances in which forward compatibility is not available (such as internal structure changes, etc).

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3

And yes, Couchbase Lite has used SEE (SQLite Encryption Extension) for database encryption.

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