PrivateBin

PrivateBin is a minimalist, open-source online pastebin that ensures zero server knowledge of pasted data through client-side 256-bit AES encryption in the browser.

🚀 Overview

PrivateBin is a self-hosted, minimalist pastebin forked from ZeroBin (by Sébastien Sauvage), refactored for better extensibility and additional privacy-focused features. It allows users to share text, code, files, and discussions securely without the server ever accessing plaintext content.

The core problem it solves is the insecurity of traditional pastebins like Pastebin.com, where servers store unencrypted data vulnerable to admins, breaches, or legal requests. PrivateBin uses client-side encryption, making data unreadable to the server (zero-knowledge), providing plausible deniability, and supporting self-destruction of pastes.

It's built for server administrators offering public or private instances, developers sharing code, teams exchanging sensitive info, and anyone needing ephemeral, secure notes. It was developed to enhance ZeroBin's privacy model with more features while keeping the server lightweight and ignorant.

✨ Key Features

Zero-knowledge encryption: Data encrypted/decrypted in-browser with 256-bit AES-GCM; key embedded in URL
Optional password protection for extra security
Discussions: Anonymous comments or with nicknames/IP-based identicons/vizhashes
Expiration options: Never, timed (minutes to months), burn-after-reading
Markdown formatting with live HTML preview
Syntax highlighting for code via Prettify.js (4 themes)
File uploads (images/media/PDF previews; configurable size limits, disabled by default)
Customizable templates (Bootstrap5 default w/ dark mode, Bootstrap, Darkstrap)
QR code generation for paste URLs
Optional: Translation system, language selector, upcoming extensions

🛠 Tech Stack

Frontend: JavaScript, Bootstrap 5/CSS, Prettify.js (syntax), DOMPurify (XSS)
Backend: PHP (48%), Composer deps, Symfony Polyfill (PHP 8+ compat)
Database: Configurable storage (files, SQL, Redis/Memcached implied via docs)
Auth: None (passwords client-side)
Hosting: Self-hosted web server (Apache/Nginx), requires HTTPS + HSTS

👥 Who Is This For?

This project is useful for:

Developers who want to ___share code and snippets securely without server access
Teams looking for __zero-knowledge paste and file sharing
Indie makers building __self-hosted privacy tools or ephemeral collaboration