I described vncmail-native's offline mail replica as "SQLCipher-encrypted"
in ARCHITECTURE.md and to the user. That is wrong, and it overstates a
security property.
Verified against the shipped code: src/sync/schema.ts sets
STORE_FORMAT = 'sqlite-plain', src/sync/store-sqlite.ts's own header says
"plain expo-sqlite, no SQLCipher", sqlite-driver.ts opens via
openDatabaseAsync() with no PRAGMA key, and there is no SQLCipher
dependency in package.json at all. SQLCipher is a documented future
native-build flip (expo-sqlite's useSQLCipher flag), not shipped behaviour.
Full mail bodies therefore sit in cleartext on the device — a materially
different posture from the Electron search index, which really is
encrypted (@signalapp/sqlcipher with an OS-keychain key via safeStorage).
Worth being precise about given the product positioning.
Bernd Rodler
3338ceb5eb