Security Model

DeLive follows defense-in-depth principles for a desktop Electron application.

Context Isolation

The Renderer runs with strict security settings:

contextIsolation: true
nodeIntegration: false

The Renderer cannot access Node.js APIs directly. All communication with the Main process goes through the contextBridge-exposed electronAPI object.

Trusted IPC

Sensitive IPC handlers verify the caller using assertTrustedSender:

1. registerTrustedWindow(provider) registers a window getter
2. On each sensitive IPC call, isTrustedSender(event) checks event.sender.id against registered windows
3. Only the main window and caption window are trusted

Protected operations: safeStorage read/write, diagnostics export, auto-launch toggle, file picker, path existence check, update download/install, local runtime management.

Content Security Policy

CSP is injected at the Electron layer via session.webRequest.onHeadersReceived:

• script-src includes 'unsafe-eval' only in development mode
• connect-src allows only required endpoints (localhost, provider APIs)

Navigation Guard

The main window blocks navigation to unexpected URLs. Allowed origins:

• http://localhost:5173 (development server)
• file: (production packaged app)
• devtools: (developer tools)

External URLs are opened via shell.openExternal instead.

Path Allowlist

File operations are restricted to safe directories:

• userData (Electron app data)
• home, desktop, downloads, documents
• temp

Any file path operation outside these roots is rejected.

Secret Storage

API keys are encrypted using Electron's safeStorage API:

1. safeStorage.encryptString(value) produces an encrypted buffer
2. Buffers are written to files in userData/safe-store/ss_<key>
3. safeStorage.decryptString(buffer) retrieves the plaintext

This uses the OS keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, Linux Secret Service).

Open API Security

The local REST API and WebSocket have multiple security layers:

Layer	Behavior
Disabled by default	API returns 403 until explicitly enabled
Optional Bearer token	When set, all requests must include the token
Localhost only	Server binds to localhost; not accessible from network
Read-only	No mutation endpoints; sessions cannot be modified via API

WARNING

When the API is enabled with no token, any process on the local machine can read transcription data. This is a deliberate convenience trade-off for local development.

No Recording Control via API

getDisplayMedia() requires explicit user interaction (screen/window picker). DeLive intentionally does not expose start_recording or stop_recording over the API. This is a security-positive decision — external processes cannot silently start capturing audio.

Diagnostics Hygiene

The diagnostics export (export-diagnostics IPC) redacts fields that look like secrets (API keys, tokens) before writing the JSON bundle.