Git file encryption to support file/folder based permission to protect the source code from theft

Question

I am using git and have the following problem:
In the company where I work we want to protect the source code from theft.

For example, when a a developer leaves and takes the source code of a project with him.

To prevent this, I came to the conclusion that encrypting the source code is the best choice, like git-crypt does. But git-crypt does not work:

• If I add a user's GPG key, he can decrypt all files, and the protection measure would be worthless.

The files of the developer should be decrypted locally and only remotely. (This way the developer does not always have to encrypt, push, decrypt the files).

I tried to re-program git-crypt in Python (because of cross-platform) but then failed due to the git attributes/smudge, clean filter drivers.

Do you know a possibility or an application that solves my problem?

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I don't consider Keybase from this answer, because it encrypts the entire repository. And all people that I will add to the repo have full permission to all the Files.

Answer 1

The encryption of git repository is designed to protect files from the theft from 3rd parties (e.g. when hosted on external servers such as GitHub or S3 Bucket, or by using Keybase), not from the developers working on the project.

You can use Git Submodules, or just different repositories, then give different permissions for each repository, so developers won't have access to the whole project.

Otherwise, if you don't want to give access to the files at all, create a SOAP/REST service for client-server communication to provide only necessary information on the demand. Most of the businesses implements multiple layers of API services to protect their sensitive data from the hacking or theft.