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# Identity, access, and audit

Encryption is useful only when access decisions are equally strong. Cifer binds protected secrets to explicit ownership and supports controlled delegation and revocation.

### Authorization layers

| Layer               | Verification                                                                 |
| ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Cryptographic proof | The requester proves control of the authorized identity.                     |
| Control-plane state | Ownership or delegation is checked against current verifiable state.         |
| Freshness           | Nonces, timestamps, or equivalent controls prevent replay of stale requests. |
| Threshold release   | Custody nodes release fragments only after policy conditions are satisfied.  |

### Ownership and delegation

Each secret has an owner. The owner may grant another identity limited access and later revoke it. Delegation should define its scope, duration, and permitted operations rather than silently copying unrestricted control.

Revocation changes future authorization. It cannot retroactively erase plaintext that an authorized recipient already viewed or copied.

### Web2-compatible access

Cifer applications can offer familiar email-and-password experiences without requiring users to manage wallets. The application layer may translate an authenticated account session into cryptographically verifiable operations through securely managed application identities and policies.

This convenience does not remove endpoint risk. Account recovery, session management, device security, phishing resistance, and application authorization remain important.

### Auditability

Security-relevant events should create append-only, tamper-evident records, including ownership changes, delegations, revocations, fragment requests, successful operations, failures, and administrative changes.

Audit records prove what the system recorded and can support investigation. They do not prove that a user's endpoint was uncompromised or that every off-network action was legitimate.


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