Security

ARIA is designed for environments where security is not optional. Every architectural decision prioritizes data sovereignty and operational security.

For a detailed view of ARIA OS security and compliance alignment, including NIST 800-53, AI RMF, FedRAMP, CMMC, and IL4/IL5 mappings, see the full compliance overview.

Security & Compliance Overview

Security Principles

Zero External Dependencies

ARIA operates without any cloud services, external APIs, or network dependencies. Your data never leaves your hardware.

No Telemetry

Zero telemetry, zero analytics, zero callbacks. ARIA never phones home. Complete operational silence.

Data Sovereignty

All processing occurs on your hardware. No data egress, no third-party processing, no external model calls.

Audit Logging

Complete audit trail of all system operations, agent actions, and state transitions. Immutable logs for compliance verification.

Encryption Architecture

Layer	Encryption	Key Management	Notes
Data at Rest	AES-256-GCM	Hardware-backed keystore	Full disk encryption recommended
Memory Bus	ChaCha20-Poly1305	Per-session keys	Inter-agent communication
State Snapshots	AES-256-GCM	Derived keys	Checkpoint integrity
Audit Logs	SHA-256 HMAC	Append-only	Tamper-evident chain

Key Derivation

HKDF-SHA256 for all derived keys. Master keys never stored in memory longer than necessary.

Secure Random

Hardware RNG where available (Apple Secure Enclave, TPM 2.0). CSPRNG fallback with entropy pooling.

Memory Protection

Sensitive data cleared on deallocation. Memory guards prevent adjacent buffer access.

Access Control

Pre-LLM Compliance Layer

Policy enforcement happens before model inference. The compliance layer validates all requests against defined policies before any LLM processing occurs.

Action-level permissions (read, write, execute, delete)
Resource-level access control
Agent capability restrictions
ROE (Rules of Engagement) enforcement

Agent Isolation

Each agent operates in an isolated context. Cross-agent communication only through validated Memory Bus channels.

Capability-Based Security

Agents receive explicit capabilities at initialization. No ambient authority. Least-privilege by default.

Policy Layers

Hierarchical policy system: System > Mission > Session > Request. Each layer can restrict but not expand permissions.

Compliance Roadmap

ARIA is architected with compliance requirements in mind. Current status and planned certifications:

Framework	Status	Target	Notes
NIST 800-53	In Progress	2025	Moderate baseline controls
NIST AI RMF	In Progress	2025	AI Risk Management Framework
FedRAMP	Planned	2026	Edge deployment focus
CMMC Level 2	Planned	2026	CUI handling
SOC 2 Type II	Planned	2026	Enterprise customers

Architecture Advantages for Compliance

Air-gapped capable: No network requirements simplify compliance boundaries
No third-party data: Eliminates supply chain data processing concerns
Deterministic behavior: Predictable outputs simplify audit and verification
Complete audit trail: Immutable logs provide compliance evidence

Threat Model

ARIA is designed to operate in adversarial environments. Our threat model assumes:

Network Compromise

Assume the network is hostile. ARIA operates without network dependencies and can function completely air-gapped.

Input Manipulation

Pre-LLM compliance layer validates all inputs. Prompt injection and adversarial inputs are filtered before model processing.

Component Failure

Autonomous recovery handles component failures. Fault isolation prevents cascade failures across the system.

Supply Chain

Minimal external dependencies. All critical components are first-party. Reproducible builds for verification.