Coordinates access
- Encrypted secret versions
- Scope metadata & public device keys
- Wrapped data keys
- Policy, grants, revocation
- Audit indexes and strict acks
Draw the trust boundary first.
Asiri narrows sprawl and agent exposure. Critical envelopes can require remote audit ack before secret release. It does not make a compromised host trustworthy. Plaintext secrets and private keys belong on trusted devices.
Backend compromise: is designed to expose encrypted blobs, metadata, and audit data rather than plaintext secrets.
Strict envelope audit: covers Asiri-controlled release paths after the device has synced policy. Offline strict use fails closed.
Trusted-device compromise: can use what that device is authorized to use, so revocation and upstream rotation still matter.
Boundary
Three paths across the line.
The boundary is fixed: hosted coordination on one side, trusted runtime on the other. What changes is the decision the runtime makes — run, deny, or recover.
A trusted device unwraps data keys locally, injects the approved value, and records the event. The hosted service never sees plaintext.
Hosted
Policy + grants
- Encrypted state
- Grant lookup
Device
Local decrypt
- Data-key unwrap
- Approved use
- Audit event
A strict envelope turns audit into a release gate. The runtime appends an encrypted local event, uploads it, and waits for a matching control-plane ack before exposing the value.
Device
Append first
- Encrypted local ledger
- Hash-chained record
Hosted
Durable ack
- Event id + digest match
- Server timestamp returned
- Secret release allowed
A request outside policy is denied before any local exposure. The denial is still auditable — you see the miss, not just the successes.
Hosted
Request
- Policy miss
- No unwrap
Device
Denied
- Nothing exposed
- Denial logged
Recovery uses owner-held workspace material locally. The hosted service stores recovery-wrapped data keys, never the recovery key itself.
Hosted
Wrapped data keys
- Recovery-wrapped
- No raw key
New device
Unwrap locally
- Owner material
- Approve device
What lives where
The split is the product promise.
Hosted coordination, local plaintext use, and the honest remainder of risk that host security still has to carry.
Uses the secret
- Device private keys
- Local data-key unwrap & decrypt
- Command injection & temp files
- Broker and sidecar access
- Encrypted local audit ledger
- Capability enforcement
Host security
- Root or host compromise
- Shell history, logs, crash reports
- Process & memory inspection
- Offline strict release blocked
- Secrets already exposed upstream
- Lost recovery material
Controls & limits
Good security copy says what it refuses to promise.
Asiri gives teams a way to manage encrypted secret access centrally while keeping runtime use local and grants narrow. It is not a proxy, not a host-trust guarantee, and not a replacement for cloud IAM where workload identity already fits.
Trusted devicesDevices prove possession of local keys before encrypted bundles can be used.
Identity grantsAuthenticated users and service accounts receive scoped actions. Trusted devices decrypt locally; labels only annotate audit events.
Audit without valuesEvents capture subject, device, scope, action, decision, reason, and time.
Strict envelope auditCritical envelopes can require a matching control-plane ack before the runtime releases a secret.
RevocationGrants and devices stop centrally; suspected upstream exposure still needs rotation.
Do not treat Asiri asa proxy or a host-trust guarantee
- Not
- A hosted egress or API traffic proxy.
- Not
- A way to trust a compromised host.
- Not
- Proof that a local app or process is who it says it is.
- Not
- A replacement for cloud IAM where workload identity already solves it.
- Not
- A reason to allow raw reads by default.
Recovery & posture
Recovery is human-anchored.
Day-to-day operation should favor short grants, explicit approvals, and routine rotation after incidents. The workspace recovery key belongs to the owner, not the backend.
Recovery path
If every trusted device is lost
- 01The workspace recovery key is generated locally and shown to the owner.
- 02The backend stores recovery-wrapped data keys — never the raw recovery key.
- 03A new trusted device unwraps locally with the owner-held workspace key.
- 04If all trusted devices and the workspace recovery key are lost, Asiri cannot decrypt that workspace's secrets.
Operate carefullydefault to narrow
- Envelope
- Start with one sensitive but reversible envelope.
- Audit mode
- Use buffered for local work. Use strict for production, staging, deploy, SSH, and other administrator-visible paths.
- Agents
- Prefer environment injection, mounts, and broker access so values stay out of agent context. Labels do not authorize access.
- Expiry
- Use short expiries for risky grants.
- Incidents
- Rotate upstream credentials after suspected compromise.