Sentinel Vault

I built Sentinel Vault as a way to learn about cybersecurity and how to handle user data safely. It is a secure space to store personal secrets using Node.js and SQLite. Instead of trying to build my own password system, which felt risky for a beginner, I chose to use GitHub OAuth2. This way, I do not have to worry about managing a local password database or the security issues that come with it.

Security Features

One of my main goals was to understand security telemetry, so I implemented an audit logging system. It tracks things like IP addresses, User Agents, and specific event types. I classified these logs into three categories to help monitor activity:

• INFO: Standard events like successful logins or viewing the vault.
• WARN: Unusual activities that might need a closer look.
• ALERT: Serious events like UNAUTHORIZED_ACCESS attempts.

By tracking the IP and User Agent for every request, I can start to see patterns and understand who is interacting with the application.

Tech Stack

• Backend: Express
• Authentication: Passport.js with GitHub Strategy
• Database: better-sqlite3 for local persistence
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• Templating: EJS

Setup

To run this project locally, you will need to set up your environment variables.

Critical Security Note

The .env file contains sensitive information like your GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET and SESSION_SECRET. You should never commit this file to version control. Use the .gitignore provided in the project to prevent accidental exposure of your credentials.

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory and add the following:

PORT=3000
SESSION_SECRET=your_session_secret_here
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=your_github_client_id
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=your_github_client_secret

Once your environment is set up, you can install the dependencies and start the server:

npm install
npm start

I am still learning a lot about web security, so I am excited to keep improving this vault as I discover more about protecting data.