Nebula Vault
About the Project
Nebula Vault is a secure SSH connection manager that keeps your hosts, keys, and credentials encrypted at rest while staying fast and pleasant to use. It's built in Rust on the GPU-accelerated iced framework for a responsive native interface. Connection secrets are protected with zero-knowledge encryption using age, with the master key derived via Argon2id, so credentials are never persisted in plaintext. The app manages SSH keys, stores everything locally in SQLite, and launches one-click connections into your preferred terminal — iTerm2, Warp, or Alacritty — using russh under the hood.
Key Features
- Zero-knowledge encryption of stored credentials with age
- Argon2id-derived master key — secrets never stored in plaintext
- SSH key management and one-click connections
- Launch into your terminal of choice (iTerm2, Warp, Alacritty)
- Local SQLite storage, no cloud dependency
- GPU-accelerated native UI built with iced
Challenges & Solutions
The central tension is keeping secrets genuinely zero-knowledge while remaining a one-click convenience tool: keys have to be decrypted just-in-time, used, and never written back in the clear. Getting the age encryption flow, Argon2id key derivation, and SSH session handling to cooperate behind a smooth iced UI — without leaking sensitive material into memory or storage longer than necessary — is the hard part.
Outcomes & Impact
Nebula Vault is a work in progress and a deep dive into applied cryptography, secure local storage, and native GUI development in Rust.
Interested in Nebula Vault?
Let's collaborate or discuss how I can help bring your projects to life.
Get in touch