Dotenvx uses Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES) to encrypt each secret with a unique ephemeral key, while ensuring it can be decrypted using a long-term private key.
When you initialize encryption, a DOTENV_PUBLIC_KEY (encryption key) and DOTENV_PRIVATE_KEY (decryption key) are generated. The DOTENV_PUBLIC_KEY is used to encrypt secrets, and the DOTENV_PRIVATE_KEY is securely stored in your cloud secrets manager or .env.keys file.
Your encrypted .env file is then safely committed to code. Even if the file is exposed, secrets remain protected since decryption requires the separate DOTENV_PRIVATE_KEY, which is never stored alongside it. Read the whitepaper for more details.
Yes. Dotenvx encrypts secrets using AES-256 with ephemeral keys, ensuring that even if the encrypted .env file is exposed, its contents remain secure. The encryption keys themselves are protected using Secp256k1 elliptic curve cryptography, which is widely used for secure key exchange in technologies like Bitcoin.
This means that every secret in the .env file is encrypted with a unique AES-256 key, and that key is further encrypted using a public key (Secp256k1). Even if an attacker obtains the encrypted .env file, they would still need the corresponding private key—stored separately—to decrypt anything.
Breaking this encryption would require brute-forcing both AES-256 and elliptic curve cryptography, which is computationally infeasible with current technology. Read the whitepaper for more details.
In the CircleCI breach the attacker accessed environment variables only. They could not access codebases. To steal your encrypted .env secrets, an attacker needs both – the private decryption key AND the encrypted .env files.
A former AWS engineer mentioned to me (and others) that AWS used them on their production infrastructure. He has since left to start his own business so maybe this is no longer the case.
Yes, at mot [at] dotenvx [dot] com. I particularly like to hear from large organizations using dotenvx. We have an SLA with enterprise assurances your compliance team will appreciate.
.env.x file like we do with .env.vault file. (#666)eval in proKeypair helper (#654)privateKeyName and privateKey on internal processedEnv object (#649)