BwtFS: Privacy-Preserving File System

🌏 Chinese | Development doc | Config

🚀 Next-Generation Privacy-Preserving File System - Featuring Black-White Tree Structure and RCA Encryption for Anti-Tracking Storage and Non-Recoverable Access

✨ Core Features

🔒 Privacy Protection

• Anti-Tracking Storage: Black-White Tree layered structure with random data distribution that prevents access pattern tracing
• Non-Recoverable Access: Token mechanism + multi-layer encryption ensures deleted data is completely unrecoverable
• Secure Memory: Memory data remains encrypted at all times, preventing memory dump

⚡ High-Performance Architecture

• Hybrid Storage: intelligent optimal strategy selection of memory and bwtfs
• COW Mechanism: Copy-on-Write protects data integrity while supporting concurrent access

🌐 Multiple Access Methods

• FUSE Mount: Cross-platform filesystem mounting (Windows/macOS/Linux)
• Command Line Tools: Interactive and batch operation modes
• HTTP Service: RESTful API + Modern Web management interface

🏗️ Technical Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  User Interface Layer               │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  │
│  │ FUSE Mount  │  │ CMD Tools   │  │ HTTP Service│  │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                  Core Engine Layer                  │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  │
│  │ B&W Tree    │  │ RCA Crypto  │  │ Token Access│  │
│  │ Storage     │  │             │  │ Control     │  │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                 Storage Layer                       │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  │
│  │ Bitmap      │  │ Wear Level  │  │ Transaction │  │
│  │ Management  │  │ Balancing   │  │ Mechanism   │  │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                  Physical Layer                     │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐                   │
│  │ Memory Pool │  │ File System │                   │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

🚀 Quick Start

System Requirements

Development Environment:

• C++20 or higher
• CMake 3.10+
• Git

Runtime Dependencies:

• Windows: WinFSP runtime
• macOS: macFUSE 2.9+
• Linux: libfuse3

Web Interface (Optional):

• Node.js 16.0+ (for development)
• pnpm 8.0+ (package manager)
• Modern browser (Chrome 90+, Firefox 88+, Safari 14+)

Build & Install

# Clone the project
git clone https://github.com/zaoweiceng/BwtFS.git
cd BwtFS

# Create build directory
mkdir build && cd build

# Configure project
cmake ..

# Build (Linux/macOS)
make

# Build (Windows)
cmake --build .

After compilation, executables are located in build/bin/ directory:

• bwtfs_cmd - Command line tools
• bwtfs_mount - FUSE mount tool
• bwtfs_net - HTTP service

Web Interface Setup

# Navigate to web directory
cd net/web

# Install dependencies with pnpm
pnpm install

# Start development server
pnpm start

# Production build
pnpm build

# Access web interface
# http://localhost:3000

🚀 Complete startup process:

1. Start the backend service: ./build/bwtfs_net (port 9999)
2. Start the front-end interface: cd net/web && pnpm start (port 3000)
3. visit: http://localhost:3000

Basic Usage

1. Command Line Tools

# Create filesystem (256MB)
./bwtfs_cmd create ./myfs.bwt 256

# Write file
./bwtfs_cmd write ./myfs.bwt ./document.pdf
# Output: ✓ File written successfully, Token: abc123def456...

# Read file
./bwtfs_cmd retrieve ./myfs.bwt abc123def456... ./output.pdf

# Delete file
./bwtfs_cmd delete ./myfs.bwt abc123def456...

# View system information
./bwtfs_cmd info ./myfs.bwt

2. FUSE Mount

# Mount to X: drive (Windows)
./bwtfs_mount.exe X: ./myfs.bwt ./fs.json

# Mount to mount point (Linux/macOS)
./bwtfs_mount ./mountpoint ./myfs.bwt ./fs.json

# Now use it like a regular filesystem
echo "Hello BwtFS" > X:\test.txt
copy X:\test.txt .\

# Unmount (Linux/macOS)
umount ./mountpoint
# Windows just exit the program

3. HTTP Service & Web Interface

# Start HTTP server (from build directory)
./bwtfs_net

# Access Modern Web interface
Open browser: http://localhost:3000

# Access API directly
API Base URL: http://127.0.0.1:9999

# API download file
curl -O http://127.0.0.1:9999/abc123def456...

Web Interface Features:

• 🎨 Modern-style UI - Modern, responsive design
• 📁 File Management - Drag-drop upload, folder operations, search
• 🔍 File Preview - Built-in preview for images, PDF, text, markdown
• 🔐 Privacy-focused - Token-based access with secure operations
• ⚡ Real-time Updates - Toast notifications and live status
• 📱 Mobile Ready - Responsive design for all devices

📖 Documentation

Document	Description
README_DEV.md	Complete development documentation with architecture design and API documentation
README_CONFIG.md	Detailed configuration file documentation
net/README.md	BwtFS 网络服务完整文档 - 包含后端 API 和前端集成
net/web/README.md	Web 前端界面详细文档 - React 技术栈和功能说明
fs/README.md	FUSE subproject documentation
fs/README_DEV.md	FUSE development documentation
net/README_DEV.md	HTTP service development documentation

🔧 Configuration

BwtFS uses bwtfs.ini configuration file:

[logging]
log_level = INFO
log_path = ./bwtfs.log
log_to_file = false
log_to_console = true

[system]
# BwtFS system file path (optional, default ./bwtfs.bwt)
# path = ./bwtfs.bwt

[server]
# HTTP service configuration
host = 127.0.0.1
port = 9999
max_body_size = 104857600

🎯 Use Cases

Personal Users

• Private File Backup: Secure backup of personal sensitive data
• Temporary File Processing: Secure handling of temporary sensitive data
• Cross-device Transfer: Encrypted file secure transfer between different devices

🔬 Technical Highlights

RCA Encryption Algorithm

Random Cellular Automata based encryption algorithm:

• Forward Encryption: Multi-level encryption during data writing
• Backward Decryption: Step-by-step decryption during data reading
• Random Seeds: Each node uses independent random seeds

Black-White Tree Structure

Innovative layered storage structure:

• White Nodes: Store actual file data
• Black Nodes: Store index information of white nodes
• Random Distribution: Nodes are randomly distributed in storage space

Token Access Control

• Unique Identifier: Each file generates a unique access token
• Information Encapsulation: Token contains position, size, encryption parameters and other information
• Access Control: Files cannot be accessed without correct token

Hybrid Storage Strategy

• Temp Files: Stored in memory for fast access
• User Files: Stored in BwtFS with encryption protection
• Intelligent Selection: Automatically selects optimal storage strategy based on file characteristics

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

Thanks to the following open source projects:

Core System:

• WinFSP - Windows FUSE implementation
• macFUSE - macOS FUSE implementation
• libfuse - Linux FUSE implementation
• cpp-httplib - Http framework
• nlohmann/json - Json library

Web Frontend:

• React - Modern UI framework
• Element Plus - Vue 3 UI components
• TypeScript - Type-safe JavaScript
• Axios - HTTP client library
• Lucide React - Icon library
• React-markdown - Markdown renderer

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