Abir-Ephemeral-Vault v0.1.0 — Quantum-Resilient Ephemeral Financial Data Vault

Financial ciphertext should expire like sessions, not survive like archives. Built to make stolen data useless after short policy windows with mandatory native post-quantum controls.

- Legacy encrypted financial dumps remain decryptable years after breach.
+ Abir-Ephemeral-Vault enforces TTL, one-time access, burn semantics, and mandatory post-quantum wrapped-key integrity.

Table of Contents

• At a Glance
• Overview
• Why Abir-Ephemeral-Vault
• Key Differentiators
• System Architecture
• Roadmap
• Use Cases
• Prerequisites and Installation
• Quick Start
• Test and Assurance Commands
• Release Hardening
• Project Governance
• Mission Support
• Developer
• License

At a Glance

Category	Highlights
Core Objective	Make stolen financial ciphertext useless after a short policy window
Crypto	AES-256-GCM envelope encryption with X25519 + mandatory native ML-KEM-1024 wrapping and ML-DSA-87 signed wrapped-key bindings
Ephemeral Controls	TTL decay, one-time consume, auto-burn, expiry sweep, tombstones
Incident Response	Global kill switch, incident-wide burn path, dead-man sync controls
Integration	Fortress adapter pattern for abir-guard double-envelope workflows
Languages	Python SDK, Rust core, Go SDK, JavaScript SDK
Verification	67/67 tests passing across Python, Rust, Go, and JavaScript
Assurance	Vulnerability audit, lockfile audit, deterministic release verification, soak benchmarking

Overview

Abir-Ephemeral-Vault is a production-oriented, multi-language ephemeral financial data vault designed for breach reality.

Traditional encrypted storage often assumes ciphertext can safely persist for years. In practice, this creates long-tail risk:

1. Attackers exfiltrate encrypted payloads now.
2. Keys or runtime trust boundaries fail later.
3. Old ciphertext becomes newly decryptable far beyond intended business use.

This project changes the default by embedding destruction semantics directly into the lifecycle:

1. Payloads are sealed with policy metadata from the start.
2. Access is constrained by token binding, TTL, and state transitions.
3. One-time or incident-triggered burn semantics make late decryption attempts fail.
4. Post-quantum controls protect wrapped-key integrity and hybrid shared-secret derivation.

The result is not just encryption at rest; it is controlled decryptability with built-in expiration and burn behavior.

Why Abir-Ephemeral-Vault

Capability	Abir-Ephemeral-Vault	Standard Encrypted Storage
Ephemeral TTL enforcement	Yes, first-class lifecycle control	Usually external job or app logic
One-time consume semantics	Yes, state-driven and auto-burn capable	Rare, custom implementation required
Incident kill switch and burn-all	Yes	Not native
Hybrid post-quantum wrapped-key path	Yes, X25519 + ML-KEM-1024	Usually classical-only
Wrapped-key authenticity	ML-DSA-87 signature verification before unwrap	Often none
Cross-language parity	Python, Rust, Go, JavaScript	Typically single-stack
Deterministic release verification	Built-in scripts and workflow hooks	Usually absent

Key Differentiators

1. Ephemeral-first security model instead of retention-first storage behavior.
2. Mandatory native ML-KEM-1024 and ML-DSA-87 enforcement for wrapped key operations.
3. Explicit state machine for sealed, consumed, burned, revoked, expired transitions.
4. Built-in operational controls: dead-man sync, geofence validation, pressure-triggered burn.
5. Cross-language conformance vectors for fortress adapter behavior.
6. Integrated assurance pipeline for audit, deterministic verification, and soak benchmarking.

System Architecture

Architecture Diagram

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Architecture Summary

Financial Plaintext
   -> Envelope Encrypt (AES-256-GCM, per-payload DEK)
   -> Hybrid Wrap DEK (X25519 + ML-KEM-1024)
   -> Sign wrapped key binding (ML-DSA-87)
   -> Store sealed payload + wrapped DEK + policy metadata
   -> Enforce token + TTL + state checks on consume
   -> Burn keys on one-time consume/expiry/incident
   -> Verify audit chain and retain tombstones

Roadmap

Phase 1: Bedrock [Complete]

• Multi-language repository foundation: Python, Rust, Go, JavaScript
• Core vault scaffolding and package/module layout
• Shared error model and state-driven payload lifecycle
• Initial test harness per language track
• Baseline developer workflow for build and test

Phase 2: Threat and Security Design [Complete]

• Financial-data threat assumptions codified into control behavior
• Token-hash based access checks (no raw token persistence)
• AAD binding for tenant + payload + expiry integrity
• Tamper-evident SHA-256 hash-chain audit logs
• Security posture hooks: strict KEM policy checks and kill-switch pattern

Phase 3: Cryptographic Core [Complete]

• Envelope encryption with per-payload 256-bit DEK
• DEK wrapping and unwrapping under master wrapping keys
• DEK burn primitives to zero key bytes after cryptographic operations
• Mandatory native ML-KEM-1024 backend execution wired in Python, Rust, Go, and JavaScript
• Mandatory native ML-DSA-87 signing and verification for wrapped-DEK authenticity in Python, Rust, Go, and JavaScript
• Strict fail-closed policy enforcement for missing PQ backends and invalid wrapped-key signatures

Phase 4: Ephemeral Controls [Complete]

• TTL-based cryptographic decay
• One-time-read enforcement (sealed -> consumed -> burned)
• Auto-burn on successful one-time consume
• Auto-burn during expiry sweep for stale payloads
• Tombstones for burned and revoked records
• Incident burn path (burn_all_for_incident)
• Global kill switch for emergency freeze posture
• Dead-man sync, geofence policy, and pressure-triggered burn controls

Phase 5: Fortress Integration with Abir-Guard [Complete]

• Adapter API for financial workflow integration
• seal_financial_data, consume_financial_payload, trigger_incident_burn
• Double-envelope pattern: abir-guard inner protection plus ephemeral outer controls
• Fortress-pattern adapter contract across Python, Rust, Go, and JavaScript

Phase 6: Release and Open-Source Hardening [Complete]

• Cross-language verification complete (67/67 passing tests)
• Public API surfaces stabilized across language tracks
• Deterministic manifest generation and verification utilities
• SBOM generation hook for environments with syft

Phase 7: Security Assurance Pipeline [Complete]

• Dependency vulnerability scan and lockfile audit automation
• Deterministic build and release artifact verification automation
• Performance and soak benchmarks for create, consume, and burn paths
• GitHub workflows for CI, scheduled dependency audit, and scheduled soak reporting

Phase 8: Quantum-Native Assurance Expansion [Planned]

• LMS and HSS stateless signature support for firmware and boot integrity chains
• QRNG-backed entropy source integration for key lifecycle operations
• Quantum-transition migration workflow for rewrapping without plaintext exposure

Phase 9: Regulated Deployment Controls [Planned]

• FIPS 140-3 Level 3 alignment workstream for audited deployments
• HSM Level-3 integration with tamper event kill policies
• Cross-region WORM-backed immutable audit replication templates

Phase 10: Distributed Ephemeral Vault Fabric [Planned]

• Atomic global burn protocol for multi-node incident propagation
• Deterministic burn convergence across regions
• Sub-millisecond fanout target for coordinated incident response

Use Cases

1) Short-Lived Financial Statements

Use TTL-bound payloads to enforce expiration after policy windows.

2) One-Time Access Payment Records

Seal sensitive records for single retrieval and automatic burn after consume.

3) Breach Containment

Trigger tenant-wide or global incident burn to prevent delayed decryption.

4) Regulated Processing Pipelines

Attach audit-chain evidence and deterministic artifacts to deployment governance.

5) Defense Against Harvest-Now Decrypt-Later

Use hybrid wrapped-key derivation and mandatory ML-DSA verification to reduce long-horizon risk.

6) Cross-Platform Security Standardization

Apply equivalent ephemeral and cryptographic behavior in Python, Rust, Go, and JavaScript services.

Prerequisites and Installation

Toolchain Requirements

Component	Minimum
Python	3.10+
Rust	1.70+
Go	1.22+
Node.js	18+

Repository Setup

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -e ".[dev]"
.venv/bin/pip install pip-audit
npm ci
cargo install cargo-audit --locked

Quick Start

Python SDK

from abir_ephemeral_vault import EphemeralVault

vault = EphemeralVault()

sealed = vault.create_payload(
    tenant_id="tenant-finance",
    plaintext='{"account":"1234","balance":9999}',
    ttl_seconds=60,
    one_time_read=True,
)

out = vault.consume_payload(sealed["payload_id"], sealed["access_token"])
print(out["plaintext"])

Incident Burn

vault.burn_all_for_incident("breach-detected")

Fortress Adapter

from abir_ephemeral_vault import AbirGuardAdapter

adapter = AbirGuardAdapter(abir_guard_vault=guard)
sealed = adapter.seal_financial_data("tenant-1", {"tx": "abc", "amount": 500}, ttl_seconds=300)
out = adapter.consume_financial_payload(sealed["payload_id"], sealed["access_token"])

Test and Assurance Commands

npm test
.venv/bin/pytest tests/test_vault.py -q
cargo test -q
(cd sdk/go && go test ./...)
npm run conformance:test
npm run security:audit
npm run deterministic:verify
npm run perf:soak

Release Hardening

npm run release:manifest
npm run release:verify
npm run release:sbom

Project Governance

Document	Purpose
THREAT_MODEL.md	Threat assumptions, trust boundaries, controls, residual risk
SECURITY.md	Vulnerability reporting policy and automated security gates
INCIDENT_RESPONSE.md	Containment and recovery workflow
CONTRIBUTING.md	Contribution standards and pre-PR validation
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md	Community behavior and enforcement
PUBLISHING.md	Python and Rust package publication flow
CITATION.cff	Citation metadata for research and references

🇮🇳🌍 Mission Support

Mission	Badge	Description
🇮🇳 Indian Quantum Mission		Quantum-resilient cryptography for India's National Quantum Mission
🌍 Global Quantum Mission		NIST FIPS 203/204 compliant worldwide
🇮🇳🌍 Indian AI Mission		Quantum-secure memory vaults for sovereign AI agents

🇮🇳 Made in India, for the World.

Developer

Abir Maheshwari Founder at Artificial Quantum Dyson Intelligence, Biro Labs, Aquilldriver AI Engineer | Quantum Computing Researcher

Connect

• Email: abhirsxn@gmail.com
• LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/abirmaheshwari
• Instagram: @anantraga31
• Medium: https://office.qz.com/@abirmaheshwari

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.

Copyright (c) 2026 Abir Maheshwari