DockVault Desktop 0.2.0-preview.4 (unsigned preview)

The fourth preview of DockVault Desktop: your DockVault vault on the desktop, with two-way folder sync for Standard vaults. The main window now carries the web interface of vault 0.33.2, so managing zero-knowledge vaults works against vault 0.33.2 and later, and the sign-in form can no longer put your password in an address.

This is an unsigned preview. The installers are not code-signed yet, so Windows and macOS warn before the first launch:

• Windows shows "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• macOS says Apple could not verify that DockVault is free of malware, and does not open it (the app is signed ad hoc but not notarized). Close the message, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, and choose Open Anyway next to the line about DockVault. On macOS 14 and earlier you can instead Control-click the app and choose Open.
• Linux shows no warning.

Downloads

System	File
Windows (x64), installer	DockVault-0.2.0-preview.4-win-x64.exe
Windows (x64), portable	DockVault-0.2.0-preview.4-win-x64-portable.exe
macOS, Apple silicon	DockVault-0.2.0-preview.4-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS, Intel	DockVault-0.2.0-preview.4-mac-x64.dmg
Linux (x64), AppImage	DockVault-0.2.0-preview.4-linux-x86_64.AppImage
Linux (x64), Debian and Ubuntu	DockVault-0.2.0-preview.4-linux-amd64.deb

The Windows installer asks nothing and needs no administrator rights: it installs for the current user under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\dockvault-desktop and starts DockVault when it finishes. The portable build installs nothing and keeps its own data beside the .exe.

Already running an earlier preview? Install this over it; your settings and sync registration are kept. Uninstalling on Windows keeps them too, unless you tick the optional box to delete them; your synced files are never touched.

What changed since preview.3

• Zero-knowledge vaults can be managed against vault 0.33.2. From vault 0.33.2 the server accepts a change to a zero-knowledge vault's keys (creating one, sharing it, rotating its key, removing a member, which rotates it) only with a proof made in the web interface on your computer. The interface in earlier previews could not make that proof, so those changes failed against an updated server. The main window now carries the interface of vault 0.33.2, which makes it; against an older server it makes the change the way that server expects.
• The sign-in form can no longer send your password in an address. If you pressed Enter before the page had finished loading, the form could be sent by the window itself, with the username and password in the address. The new interface stops that.
• Downloads go to disk as they arrive. Against vault 0.30.0 or later, a download from the main window is written to disk as it arrives instead of being held in memory first, so a file of any size downloads, from Standard and zero-knowledge vaults alike, as long as it was uploaded in the current format (see Known issues for zero-knowledge files uploaded before vault 0.31.0). The helper the interface uses for this is served from the app itself, never from the server, and the app's copy of it also delivers small files: the interface's own copy can drop a small zero-knowledge file before the window asks for it, so that Download does nothing and shows no message.
• Everything else in the vault's web interface from 0.28 to 0.33.2 comes with it, including the Activity page for administrators (which replaces the Live Monitor and holds the audit log) and a layout for narrow windows.

Before you start

• A DockVault vault server. Folder sync needs vault 0.28.0 or later (earlier notes said 0.27.0; setting up sync has always needed 0.28.0). Managing zero-knowledge vaults from the main window works against any of them; against vault 0.33.2 or later it needs this preview. Use the newest vault release: it is the one with every security fix.
• Your server's address (https; plain http is accepted only for the same computer), and its file transfer (SFTP) address, which on a standard install is your server's name on port 2322.

What was tested

Before anything was published, the release pipeline built every installer and started the app from each installer on its own platform: Windows x64, macOS on Apple silicon, macOS on Intel (natively), and Linux, from both the installed .deb and the AppImage. The unit tests passed (1,330, with one skipped as in earlier previews), as did the app's window checks (setup screen, sync walk-through, Computers window, Troubleshoot) and new checks for this release: every file the bundled interface loads is present, the page policy matches the server's, the lock still clears every key the interface keeps, a key-change request reaches the server with its proof and exact body, a sign-in sent before the page loads does not leave the page, the bundled crypto reads both key and content formats a vault writes, the download helper comes only from the app, and the app's helper delivers a small file whose bytes are all written before the window asks for them.

Live, the app's main window created a zero-knowledge vault, shared it with a second account, removed that member (which rotated the key), rotated the key from the vault's notice, and did the same for a team vault against vault 0.33.2, which recorded each change with its proof; the same steps worked against vault 0.33.1 and 0.32.6, which take them without one. A file another account's browser wrote in the older format, and shared to the app, opened in it, and one the app wrote opened in that browser. A 300 MB file uploaded and downloaded through the main window came back byte for byte, from a Standard vault and from a zero-knowledge vault, and so did small files: 10 bytes, 1 KB and 30 KB, each downloaded twice from a zero-knowledge vault and from a Standard vault against vault 0.33.2. The same small downloads, run with the interface's own helper in place of the app's, were lost five times out of six, which is the fault the app's copy fixes. Folder sync to a Standard vault ran both ways against 0.33.2, 0.33.1 and 0.32.6.

Known issues

• Against a vault older than 0.33.0, the Activity page cannot load, and with it the audit log, which earlier previews showed under Settings. Use the server's own web page in a browser for the audit log there, or update the server.
• Against a vault older than 0.30.0, a file larger than 256 MiB cannot be downloaded from the main window. Such a server tells the interface to hold each download in memory, and the interface refuses a file over that size rather than hold it (earlier previews held any download in memory). Download it from the server's own web page in a browser or, in a Standard vault, through folder sync; or update the server. A server whose administrator has set downloads to be held in memory has the same limit, as it has in a browser.
• A zero-knowledge file larger than 256 MiB that was uploaded before vault 0.31.0 (in the older format) is held in memory to download, so the main window refuses it, as the server's own web page does. Files uploaded since then are not affected.
• The app does not open the server's live connection. The Activity page shows Connecting… and picks up new events within about 15 seconds instead of at once, the notification bell catches up within about a minute, and the message that a temporary credential you created has just signed in does not pop up (its notification still reaches the bell).
• A PDF shows as a blank page in the main window's file preview, because the window has no PDF viewer. Download the file to read it. Earlier previews had the same limit.
• Zero-knowledge vaults are not synced to a folder; open them in the main window.
• If a large file is still being copied into a synced folder when a sync starts, that folder can stop with Repair sync. Repair, from the tray, finishes it; nothing is deleted, and where a file differs in both places both copies are kept.
• When a synced folder goes missing while the Computers window is open, its Find the folder… button appears after Refresh.

DockVault Desktop is free software under the AGPL-3.0-only license, and its source is in this repository.