Show HN: InterEnv – Hardware enclave secrets in pure Rust

Eradicate Plaintext .env Files from Developer Disks Forever

Ultra-fast, hardware-enclave secret isolation in pure Rust, built for Interlayer Blockchain and open for all.

Built for macOS TouchID, Windows Hello / TPM 2.0, and Linux Secret Service.

Secrets decrypt only in volatile process memory. Never touches disk. Never leaks in Git.

InterEnv core engine, CLI, and multi-language client SDKs are officially published and immediately available across all major package ecosystems:

Every software engineer, Web3 validator, and AI agent builder uses environment variables to store mission-critical credentials: INTERLAYER_VALIDATOR_KEY, ETHEREUM_PRIVATE_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, database connection strings, and webhook signing secrets.

• ❌ The Catastrophic Problem : Plaintext.env files get accidentally committed to public GitHub repositories daily. Maliciousnpm andpip packages scan developers' hard drives to exfiltrate plaintext secrets. In blockchain environments, a leaked.env means permanent loss of validator stake or treasury funds.
• ❌ The Flaw in Other Tools :dotenvx encrypts secrets but stores the decryption key in another plaintext file (.env.keys ) on disk! Cloud secret managers (1Password, Doppler, Infisical) are cloud-locked, slow, and require expensive monthly subscriptions.
• 🛡️ The InterEnv Solution : Engineered originally to safeguard high-stakes validator keys and autonomous agent secrets for theInterlayer Blockchain ecosystem, InterEnv seals your project secrets inside yourHost Hardware Security Enclave (Apple Secure Enclave on macOS, TPM 2.0 / Windows Hello on Windows, Secret Service on Linux). Secrets are decryptedstrictly in volatile process memory for the exact lifecycle of your command, and then erased with cryptographic zeroization (zeroize ).

cargo install interenv
npm install -g interenv
npx interenv --help
git clone https://github.com/Bharathcoorg/interenv.git
cd interenv
cargo build --release --features tpm

Note

Real TPM 2.0 Support: Linux hardware TPM 2.0 support requires building with --features tpm. Without this flag, Linux falls back to software-based KEK protection.

See INSTALL.md for full installation guides across Cargo, NPM, PyPI, Go, PHP, and Docker.

Inside any project with an existing .env file:

interenv lock

What happens:

1. Generates an XChaCha20-Poly1305 master project key and binds it to yourHardware Enclave (TouchID / TPM / Windows Hello) .
2. Creates an encrypted, git-safe .interenv.lock file.
3. Cryptographically shreds and destroys the plaintext.env from physical storage using DoD 5220.22-M 3-pass overwriting!

Execute any tool, test runner, validator node, or web server:

interenv run interlayer-node --validator

interenv run npm run dev

interenv run cargo run

interenv run python app.py

interenv run docker compose up

Secrets are injected directly into child process memory. Nothing ever touches disk.

Need to add a new API key?

interenv edit

Opens your default $EDITOR in a secure temporary buffer, updates keys, re-encrypts into .interenv.lock, and securely shreds the temp buffer.

interenv hook install

Installs an automated guard in .git/hooks/pre-commit that detects and immediately aborts any accidental staging or commit of .env files or hardcoded API keys.

InterEnv provides native, zero-dependency SDKs across all major programming ecosystems. Secrets are injected directly into process memory without creating or touching plaintext .env files on disk.

npm install interenv
js
import { config } from "interenv";
config(); // Injects into process.env in-memory

console.log(process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY);
pip install interenv
python
import interenv, os
interenv.load_env() # Injects into os.environ in-memory

print(os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"))
go get github.com/Bharathcoorg/interenv/go/interenv
package main
import (
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "github.com/Bharathcoorg/interenv/go/interenv"
)

func main() {
    interenv.Load() // Injects into os.Setenv in-memory
    fmt.Println(os.Getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"))
}
composer require bharathcoorg/interenv
php
use InterEnv\InterEnv;
InterEnv::load(); // Injects into $_ENV, $_SERVER, and putenv()

echo getenv('OPENAI_API_KEY');

1. Authenticated Encryption (AEAD) : All environment payloads are encrypted withXChaCha20-Poly1305 using 192-bit (24-byte) random nonces sourced from the OS RNG (rand::rngs::OsRng ).
2. Hardware Enclave Sealing : Master encryption keys are stored directly in the host OS credential enclave:

• macOS : Apple Keychain backed by Apple Secure Enclave & TouchID (macos-secure-enclave-v1 ).
• Windows : Windows Credential Manager protected by TPM 2.0 (windows-ncrypt-tpm-v2 ) and DPAPI.
• Linux : TPM 2.0 hardware primary key binding (linux-tpm2-v1 ) or FreeDesktop Secret Service.

3. Headless & CI/CD Support : For automated CI runners and Docker containers, pass--passphrase or setINTERENV_PASSPHRASE to derive master keys viaArgon2id (memory-hard password hashing with OWASP defaults: 19 MiB RAM, 2 iterations, parallelism = 1).
4. Memory Zeroization : Plaintext secret buffers implementzeroize::ZeroizeOnDrop , ensuring keys and values are actively wiped from RAM upon release.

Note

Linux TPM 2.0 Hardware Binding: Real Linux TPM 2.0 hardware binding requires building with --features tpm (cargo build --release --features tpm). Without this flag or on machines lacking /dev/tpmrm0, Linux automatically utilizes secure Freedesktop Secret Service / software KEK protection.

Warning

Windows Job Object Isolation & unsafe_mode Feature: Windows builds strictly enforce kernel Job Object isolation with JOB_OBJECT_LIMIT_KILL_ON_JOB_CLOSE to ensure all spawned child trees terminate immediately when interenv exits. The optional Cargo feature unsafe_mode allows INTERENV_UNSAFE=1 to bypass Windows Job Object isolation for headless or virtualized CI runners that lack nested Job Object permissions. Never compile or enable unsafe_mode in production environments.

• Root / Ring-0 Access : An attacker with root or kernel privileges on the local machine can dump arbitrary memory.
• Solid State Drive Wear-Leveling : CoW filesystems (APFS, Btrfs, ZFS) and SSD flash translation layers (FTL) may wear-level blocks. InterEnv applies filesystem decommit calls (fallocate ,BLKDISCARD ,SetFileValidData ) and warns ininterenv doctor .
• Hardware Failure / Reinstall : If a machine-bound TPM is reset, locally sealed lockfiles cannot be retrieved without an Argon2id passphrase backup (interenv lock --passphrase ).

InterEnv has undergone multi-phase adversarial security hardening:

• v0.1.0 Security Audit : Argon2id OWASP parameters, XChaCha20-Poly1305 cipher migration,Secrets full memory zeroization, crash-safe temporary file guards.
• v0.2.0 Platform Hardening : Windows Job Object containment, Linux Seccomp BPF privilege filter, macOS Sandbox profile, Windows NCrypt TPM 2.0 KEK, safe atomic path canonicalization (safe_canonicalize ).
• v1.0.0 Release Candidate Hardening : macOS Secure Enclave hardware binding, Linux TPM 2.0 KEK feature flag, supply chain verification (cargo-audit ,cargo-deny ), fuzz testing targets, criterion benchmarks, and lockfile schema v3.0 migration.

InterEnv release binaries are bit-for-bit reproducible:

bash scripts/verify-reproducible-build.sh

All release binaries are built with lto = "fat", codegen-units = 1, panic = "abort", and path prefix remapping to ensure verifiable artifact provenance.

InterEnv is a high-performance, local-first secret management engine written in Rust that permanently eradicates plaintext .env files from developer disks. It binds encrypted project secrets directly to host hardware security enclaves (Apple Secure Enclave on macOS, TPM 2.0 / DPAPI on Windows, and Linux Secret Service) and decrypts them exclusively into volatile process memory.

Interlayer Blockchain is a sovereign multi-VM Layer 1 architecture designed for high-throughput consensus, decentralized validators, and autonomous on-chain AI agents. In high-stakes blockchain infrastructure, relying on external cloud secret managers introduces latency bottlenecks and vendor lock-in, while storing validator keys, relayer secrets, or deployer credentials in plaintext .env files risks catastrophic financial compromise. InterEnv was engineered to provide host silicon-level hardware isolation (Apple Secure Enclave and TPM 2.0) so that validator operators, node engineers, and autonomous Web3 agents can execute commands with zero plaintext exposure on physical disk.

• dotenv : Leaves all API keys, database passwords, and private tokens unencrypted on physical storage, exposing them to rogue npm/pip supply-chain packages and accidental git commits.
• dotenvx : Encrypts.env files but writes the decryption master key to an unencrypted.env.keys file on the exact same disk.
• dotenv-vault / Doppler / Infisical : Require proprietary cloud vaults, persistent internet connections, and paid monthly subscriptions.
• InterEnv : 100% offline, local-first, free & open source (MIT), binds keys to host hardware chips (TPM 2.0 / TouchID), and cryptographically destroys plaintext files using 3-pass DoD 5220.22-M overwrites.

AI coding agents execute your application via interenv run <command> or import the language SDK (interenv.config() in Node.js, interenv.load_env() in Python, interenv.Load() in Go, InterEnv::load() in PHP). Secrets are injected directly into the child process memory space via standard environment variables without ever creating a plaintext .env file on disk. This prevents LLMs, indexing bots, or repository search tools from reading or exfiltrating raw credentials.

When sealing a project for multi-developer or continuous integration workflows, run interenv lock --passphrase. In your automated CI runner (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Docker, Kubernetes), provide the secret passphrase through the INTERENV_PASSPHRASE environment variable along with INTERENV_CI=1. InterEnv derives the master key via OWASP-compliant memory-hard Argon2id (19 MiB RAM, 2 iterations, 1 parallelism) without interactive terminal prompts.

InterEnv was engineered to safeguard sensitive validator credentials, blockchain deployment keys, and autonomous AI agents for the Interlayer Blockchain sovereign multi-VM ecosystem, and is open source for developers worldwide:

• ⚡ intermcp — Ultra-fast, safe Model Context Protocol (MCP) engine and multiplexing hub in pure Rust.
• 🛡️ interenv — Hardware-enclave protected secrets for terminal, AI agents & git.
• ⛓️ Interlayer Blockchain

MIT License. Copyright (c) 2026 Bharath B R (Interlayer). Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or PR.