Search encryption

Search index encryption

Default value is "encrypted"

:warning: The configuration mode "clear" of this functionality can cause DATA LEAK

The unencrypted content of each page is accessible through the search index. Not encrypting the search index means completely removing the protection provided by this plugin. You have been warned

This feature allows you to control the behavior of the encryption plugin with the search index. Three configuration modes are possible:

clear : Search index is not encrypted. Search is possible even on protected pages.
dynamically : Search index is encrypted on build. Search is possible once the pages have been decrypted.
encrypted : Search index of encrypted pages is removed on build. Search is not possible on encrypted pages.

You can set search_index: '<mode_name>' in your mkdocs.yml to change the search index encryption mode. Possible values are clear, dynamically, encrypted. The default mode is "encrypted".

plugins:
    - encryptcontent:
        search_index: 'dynamically'

This functionality modifies the search index created by the “search” plug-in. Some themes might override the default search plug-in provided by mkdocs, but so far the structure of the search/search_index.json file is consistent.

The modification of the search index is carried out last (if encryptcontent is also last in plugins). But always double-check the generated index after mkdocs build to see if your information is protected.

When the configuration mode is set to "dynamically", the javascripts contribution files are used to override the default search plugin files provided by MkDocs. They include a process of decrypting and keeping the search index in a SessionStorage.

Search index encryption for mkdocs-material

Material for MkDocs uses a different search plugin that cannot "easily" be overridden like the default search plugin. However this Plugin will still remove encrypted pages (encrypted) or encrypt the search entries (dynamically) for mkdocs-material.

In order to be able to decrypt the search index (dynamically) mkdocs-material needs to be customized (patched).

Patches for different versions can be found here.

Material 8.x

You'll need some prerequisites and also execute these commands:

git clone https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material
cd mkdocs-material
pip install mkdocs-minify-plugin
pip install mkdocs-redirects
npm install

#copy material_search_worker.patch to mkdocs-material
patch -p 0 < material_search_worker8.patch

pip install --force-reinstall .
#pip install --force-reinstall --no-deps . #faster if mkdocs-material was already installed

Material 9.x

Follow the instructions for Theme development carefully.

Apply the patch before Building the theme:

patch -p 0 < material_browser_request9.patch # until Material 9.3
patch -p 0 < material_browser_request9_4p.patch # Material 9.4+