Files
Andreas Reinhold / reiniandClaude Opus 5 40e35bab0e Encrypt uploads in the browser and send them in chunks
A 6 GB upload kept a customer waiting long after its progress bar
reached 100%. The server wrote every upload three times: PHP's
temporary file, Livewire's copy of it ("Processing files...") and the
encrypted file ("Create Share Link"), each a full rewrite of a slow
disk. The unencrypted copy also stayed behind in livewire-tmp.

Now the uploader's browser encrypts each file in 16 MB chunks with
WebCrypto and PUTs them one at a time; the server checks each chunk in
memory and writes it once, already encrypted. Creating the share only
wraps its key and saves the options. A 200 MB upload through the
Docker image took 2.8 s, and its download matched byte for byte.

- SEALCHK2: a 19-byte header (chunk size, 7-byte nonce prefix), then
  ciphertext and tag per chunk. Each nonce holds the chunk index and a
  last-chunk flag (the STREAM construction), so cut or reordered files
  fail to decrypt. SEALCHK1 and the single-block format still read.
- Envelope encryption: one random key per share. With a password it is
  wrapped with Argon2id (sodium, libsodium's interactive limits) in
  shares.wrapped_key, which names its parameters. Password shares from
  before keep their PBKDF2-derived key.
- The upload page registers each selection with FileUploader into a
  pending share of its own, lists the files with their progress, retries
  a failed chunk after 1-16 s, then offers Retry; Remove and Cancel
  abort. UploadChunkController only accepts chunks from the session that
  started the share: a repeat is acknowledged, a skip gets 409 with the
  count stored. Chunks go out as Blobs, which Chromium sends about eight
  times faster than ArrayBuffers.
- Uploads need a secure context: over plain HTTP the page says HTTPS is
  needed and takes no files. The Docker image gains AUTO_HTTPS, which
  serves Let's Encrypt on 443 for SERVER_NAME and redirects 80; without
  it the container stays on HTTP 80 behind a proxy. docker/Caddyfile was
  never loaded and is gone; docker/healthcheck.sh covers both modes.
- "Download all" streams the ZIP with maennchen/zipstream-php (STORE,
  ZIP64) instead of decrypting whole files into memory and writing the
  archive unencrypted to /tmp.
- Pending shares count towards the quota, stay out of the admin
  dashboard and 404 everywhere else. shares:cleanup deletes uploads idle
  for 4 hours and Livewire temporary files older than that.
- PHP's upload limits no longer cap the admin's max file size and
  default to 64M; LIVEWIRE_MAX_UPLOAD_TIME is gone and
  UPLOAD_CHUNK_SIZE_MB is new.
- Tests cover the format, key wrapping, registration limits, the chunk
  endpoint's answers, completing a share, the streamed ZIP, cleanup,
  and in Chromium a real chunked upload and the HTTPS warning; the
  selected-files overflow test runs again. README, website, CHANGELOG
  and .ai/rules follow.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-09-16 20:49:17 +02:00

7.7 KiB

SealShare

A simple, self-hosted file sharing solution built with Laravel. Upload files, get a shareable link, done. All files are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM.

Website: sealshare.nonameweb.ch

Screenshots

Uploading files and folders with share options A new share with its link and QR code button

The recipient's download page on a phone

Features

  • File Uploading — Drag & drop or browse to upload single/multiple files and folders with real-time progress; large files go up in chunks, each retried on its own if the connection drops
  • Shareable Links — Each upload generates a unique link for recipients, also as a QR code (saved as a PNG) or through the device's share sheet
  • Encryption at Rest — Files are encrypted in the uploader's browser, chunk by chunk with AES-256-GCM, before they are sent, and are stored only in encrypted form; with a share password the share's key is wrapped with a key derived from it (Argon2id) and never stored as it is. It is not end-to-end encryption: the server issues the key, checks each chunk, and decrypts the files for downloads
  • Password Protection — Optionally protect shares with a password, typed or generated (random characters or a passphrase, as the admin configures) and copied on the upload page or next to the new link
  • Expiration — Shares auto-expire after a configurable duration (1 hour to 30 days)
  • Download Limits — Set a maximum number of downloads per share
  • ZIP Downloads — Download all files in a share as a single ZIP archive, streamed as it is built, whatever the files' size
  • Auto-Cleanup — Expired shares and files are automatically deleted (hourly)
  • Admin Dashboard — View, manage, and delete all shares
  • Admin Settings — Configure upload limits, storage quotas, branding, and more
  • Site Branding — Custom logo, title, and description
  • Colour Profiles — Eight Material 3 colour profiles (Indigo, Blue, Teal, Green, Amber, Rose, Violet, Graphite); the admin picks one for every page, mail and error page
  • System Password — Optional global password gate to restrict upload access
  • User Authentication — Login, password reset, email verification
  • Two-Factor Authentication — TOTP-based 2FA via Laravel Fortify
  • Light and Dark Themes — Material 3 Expressive design that follows the system theme, or light or dark by choice
  • Setup Wizard — First-run wizard to create the initial admin account

Tech Stack

Layer Technology
Framework Laravel 13
Application Server FrankenPHP (via Laravel Octane)
Frontend Livewire 4, Tailwind CSS 4, Livewire Material (Material 3 Expressive)
Authentication Laravel Fortify
Encryption Chunked AES-256-GCM (WebCrypto in the browser), keys wrapped with Argon2id
ZIP Downloads ZipStream-PHP
Testing Pest 5 with browser tests (Playwright)
Code Style Laravel Pint
Build Tool Vite

Installation — Development

# Build and start the dev container
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d --build

# View logs (including Vite output)
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs -f

The app is available at http://localhost:8000 with Vite HMR on port 5173.

Installation — Production

mkdir sealshare && cd sealshare
curl -O https://gitea.nonameweb.ch/noNameWEB/SealShare/raw/branch/main/docker-compose.example.yml
cp docker-compose.example.yml docker-compose.yml

# Generate an app key and paste it into docker-compose.yml
docker run --rm gitea.nonameweb.ch/nonameweb/sealshare:latest php artisan key:generate --show

# Edit docker-compose.yml — set APP_KEY and APP_URL, and choose how HTTPS is served (below)
# Then start:
docker compose up -d

Migrations run automatically on startup. Open your configured domain — the Setup Wizard will create the first admin account.

Key environment variables:

Variable Required Description
APP_KEY Yes Laravel encryption key
APP_URL Yes Full URL (e.g. https://share.example.com)
AUTO_HTTPS No true to fetch a Let's Encrypt certificate for SERVER_NAME and serve HTTPS on port 443 (port 80 redirects); default false, plain HTTP on port 80 for a reverse proxy
SERVER_NAME With AUTO_HTTPS The domain to fetch the certificate for (e.g. share.example.com)
UPLOAD_CHUNK_SIZE_MB No Size of each encrypted chunk the browser sends; default 16

HTTPS is required for uploads. Files are encrypted in the uploader's browser with WebCrypto, which browsers only offer over HTTPS or on localhost; over plain HTTP the upload page says so and takes no files (downloads keep working). Either set AUTO_HTTPS: "true" with SERVER_NAME — ports 80 and 443 must be reachable from the internet — or put a reverse proxy that terminates TLS in front of port 80.

Volumes:

Volume Path Purpose
sealshare_storage /app/storage/app Encrypted uploaded files
sealshare_database /app/database SQLite database
caddy_data /data TLS certificates
caddy_config /config Caddy configuration

Large files:

Files go up in chunks of UPLOAD_CHUNK_SIZE_MB, one request each, so PHP's upload limits and a proxy's request timeout do not limit a file's size. What does:

Limit Where Default
Max file size / Max size per share Admin → Settings 100 MB / 2 GB
Storage quota Admin → Settings 20 GB — files still uploading count towards it
UPLOAD_CHUNK_SIZE_MB Environment 16

Behind a reverse proxy, its request body limit must be a little larger than a chunk (nginx: client_max_body_size 32m;), and proxy_request_buffering off; keeps nginx from writing each chunk to its own temporary files. PHP_UPLOAD_MAX_FILESIZE / PHP_POST_MAX_SIZE (default 64M) only apply to the admin's logo upload. An upload no chunk reached for 4 hours is deleted by the hourly cleanup.

Manual (without Docker)

git clone https://gitea.nonameweb.ch/noNameWEB/SealShare.git
cd SealShare

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
npm install && npm run build

cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# Edit .env — set APP_ENV=production, APP_DEBUG=false, APP_URL=https://your-domain.com

touch database/database.sqlite
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan storage:link

php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

Start with Octane:

php artisan octane:frankenphp --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80

Or point your web server (Nginx/Apache) to the public/ directory for a traditional PHP-FPM setup.

Add the scheduler to your crontab:

* * * * * cd /path-to-sealshare && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

License

This project is open-source software licensed under the MIT License.

Generated passphrases draw from the EFF Large Wordlist by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, licensed under CC BY 3.0 US (resources/wordlists/eff-large-wordlist.txt, without its four hyphenated words).