Systems
01 / AI-assisted systems developer· Security

A password manager that never phones home — Rust core, encrypted local vault, zero cloud dependency.

Year
Jun 2026
Status
Public
Stack
Rust, Tauri, Svelte, WebExt
audit
16 hardening fixes
Protec's vault with an entry open: username, revealed password, URL, notes and tags (demo data)
01

Every mainstream password manager is someone else's database with a subscription attached. The vault — the most sensitive file a person owns — lives on infrastructure they don't control, reachable by anyone who breaches it. The requirement was simple to state and hard to build: a vault that never leaves the disk, unlocks with hardware biometrics, and still autofills in the browser like the cloud products do.

02

A Rust core owns cryptography and storage; a Tauri + Svelte shell renders it. The browser extension talks to the desktop app over native messaging — no local server, no open port. Windows Hello is an optional extra unlock; the master password always works.

03

A six-area whole-codebase security audit shipped 16 fixes. Entry secrets — password, notes, TOTP seed, custom fields — zeroize on drop so they don't linger in memory. Plaintext reveals are rate-limited to block bulk exfiltration. The extension confirms nonces, matches the HTTPS scheme, and checks the message sender before it will fill anything.

04

ARGON2ID > PBKDF2memory-hard KDF; GPU farms pay full price
NATIVE MSG > LOCAL SERVERno listening port, no CORS surface
ZEROIZE ON DROPsecrets leave memory the moment they're unused