# Security at Fyle

Last updated: 10 October 2026

How Fyle protects your files and accounts: what is in place today, what the system is designed to do as the file service is built, and how to report a vulnerability. Fyle is in development, so we mark every measure with its status rather than claim more than exists.

## Status at a glance

| Measure | Status |
| --- | --- |
| TLS on every connection | In place |
| Breach-checked passwords, two-factor authentication, rate limits | In place |
| Organisation security policies (session length, idle timeout, require 2FA, desktop re-authentication) | In place |
| Device sign-in with browser approval; 15-minute signed API tokens | In place |
| Direct-to-storage transfers with short-lived signed requests | By design (file service in development) |
| Immutable versions; conflicting writes become branches | By design (file service in development) |
| Scoped, short-lived agent credentials | By design |
| Full audit log and SIEM export (Enterprise) | Planned |
| SSO (SAML/OIDC) and SCIM (Enterprise) | Planned |
| Cyber Essentials Plus, then ISO 27001 or SOC 2 | Planned; no certification held yet |

## How your files move

Fyle separates coordination from file bytes. Our servers decide who may read or write what; the bytes themselves travel directly between your device and object storage.

- To upload or download, a client asks the Fyle API, which checks your permissions and returns a signed request that works for one object, one operation and a short time. File bytes don't pass through Fyle's application servers.
- Signed requests are treated as credentials: they are never logged.
- Storage keys are opaque identifiers, never your file names, and committed versions are never overwritten. A save based on an out-of-date copy becomes a branch for review instead of replacing someone's work.
- Storage credentials stay on our servers and are never shipped in the desktop apps or CLI.

## Encryption

- **In transit:** TLS on every connection between devices, Fyle and storage.
- **At rest:** File content in Fyle-managed storage is held in Cloudflare R2, which encrypts all objects at rest (AES-256, per Cloudflare's documentation). Our database provider, Neon, encrypts data at rest. With your own bucket, encryption follows your provider's settings.
- **Secrets:** Two-factor secrets are stored encrypted. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. Session tokens are kept in HttpOnly cookies and never handed to page scripts.

## Accounts and sign-in

- Passwords follow NIST SP 800-63B: 12 to 128 characters, a strength check, and no password that has appeared in a known breach. The breach check uses the Pwned Passwords range API: only the first 5 characters of the password's SHA-1 hash are sent, never the password.
- Two-factor authentication with an authenticator app, plus 10 single-use backup codes. After 10 wrong codes the account's two-factor step locks for 15 minutes. You can trust a browser for 30 days.
- Magic sign-in links are refused for accounts with two-factor enabled, so they can't bypass it.
- Sign-in, sign-up and other auth endpoints are rate limited by client IP.
- Desktop apps and the CLI sign in with a device code you approve in your browser (OAuth 2.0 Device Authorization Grant, RFC 8628). Approval requires a browser session that meets your organisation's policy.
- The Fyle API accepts only short-lived (15 minute) signed tokens, and for writes and storage access it re-checks that the session hasn't been revoked.

## Organisation controls

- Roles (owner, admin, billing, member, viewer) decide what each person can do; every action is re-checked on the server.
- Admins can set the maximum session age (1 to 90 days), an idle timeout, how often desktop devices must re-authenticate, and require two-factor authentication for every member.
- Members can see their signed-in devices and sign any of them out.
- Every committed version records who made it: the person, the device and, for agents, the agent session.

## AI agents

- Agents are treated as untrusted clients. They use the same permission checks as people; the MCP server has no privileged route.
- Agents run in their own session. Their changes are recorded separately and land by policy; by default, changes to files people own become a branch for review.
- Agent credentials are scoped to a workspace, paths and mode (read, branch-only or direct) and expire quickly. An agent never receives a person's own session.
- Text inside files is treated as data, never as instructions to Fyle's own features.
- Fyle works without any AI feature: if search or agent services are down, the drive still works.

## Infrastructure and data location

The website and web app run on Cloudflare. The database is Neon PostgreSQL in London (AWS eu-west-2). File content is stored in Cloudflare R2. The Fyle API will run on Hetzner in Germany or Finland. The full list, with what each provider handles, is on our [subprocessors page](/legal/subprocessors). Residency options, including UK-only, are on the [trust page](/trust).

## Certifications

Fyle does not hold a security certification yet. Our plan is Cyber Essentials Plus first, then ISO 27001 or SOC 2 as Enterprise customers need them. We will list each one here only once it is awarded.

## Reporting a vulnerability

Email [security@fyle.sh](mailto:security@fyle.sh) with a description, steps to reproduce and the impact you expect. Our contact details are also published in [security.txt](/.well-known/security.txt) (RFC 9116).

- We will acknowledge your report within [3] working days and keep you updated until it is fixed.
- Test only against your own accounts and data. Don't access, change or delete other people's data, degrade the service, or use social engineering or physical attacks.
- Give us reasonable time to fix the issue before you disclose it publicly.
- If you act in good faith and follow these rules, we will not take legal action against you for your research, and we will credit you if you want.

> **To confirm before publication:** The acknowledgement time and the safe-harbour wording should be confirmed by the owner and reviewed by the solicitor. There is no paid bug bounty.