/// REFERENCE / GLOSSARY
Glossary
Key terms used in storafleet and AWS S3 documentation.
Bucket
A bucket is the top-level container for objects in Amazon S3. Every object stored in S3 lives inside a bucket. Bucket names must be globally unique across all AWS accounts and regions. A single AWS account can own up to 100 buckets by default.
Object
An object is a file stored in an S3 bucket. It consists of the file data (the body), a key (the object's name and path within the bucket), and metadata (key-value pairs describing the object). Objects can be up to 5 TB in size.
Prefix
S3 has a flat storage model — there are no real folders. A prefix is the portion of an object key before the last / character. When you browse a “folder” in S3, you are filtering objects by a common prefix. storafleet displays prefixes as folders in the file browser for convenience.
Storage Class
AWS S3 offers multiple storage classes optimized for different access patterns and cost profiles. Common classes include STANDARD (frequent access), STANDARD_IA (infrequent access),GLACIER (archival), and INTELLIGENT_TIERING (automatic tiering). Each class has different pricing for storage, retrieval, and requests.
Lifecycle Rule
A lifecycle rule is a policy that automatically transitions objects between storage classes or expires (deletes) objects after a specified number of days. Lifecycle rules are set at the bucket level and can be scoped to specific prefixes or object tags. storafleet provides a GUI for creating and managing lifecycle rules without writing XML policies directly.
Presigned URL
A presigned URL is a time-limited, pre-authenticated URL for a specific S3 object. It allows anyone with the URL to access the object directly from S3 without AWS credentials, for the duration specified when the URL was generated. See Files & Presigned URLs for details.
IAM
IAM (Identity and Access Management) is the AWS service used to manage access to AWS resources. IAM users, roles, and policies control which AWS API actions are permitted. storafleet uses the IAM credentials you provide to authenticate AWS API calls — it does not create or manage IAM resources on your behalf.
Versioning
S3 versioning allows multiple versions of an object to be stored in the same bucket. When versioning is enabled, every upload creates a new version rather than overwriting the existing object. Deleted objects receive a delete marker rather than being permanently removed. Versioning protects against accidental overwrites and deletions.
CORS
CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) is a browser security mechanism that controls which web origins can make requests to an S3 bucket from JavaScript. If you want to upload files to S3 directly from a browser application hosted on a different domain, you must configure a CORS policy on the bucket allowing that origin.
Multipart Upload
Multipart upload is the AWS S3 mechanism for uploading large objects in multiple parts. It is required for objects larger than 5 GB and recommended for objects larger than 100 MB. Parts are uploaded in parallel and assembled by S3 when all parts have been received. Incomplete multipart uploads consume storage until they are aborted — lifecycle rules can automatically abort stale multipart uploads.
AES-256-GCM
AES-256-GCM is a symmetric authenticated encryption algorithm. AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) uses a 256-bit key. GCM (Galois/Counter Mode) is an authenticated encryption mode that provides both confidentiality and integrity — it detects tampering with the ciphertext. storafleet uses AES-256-GCM to encrypt your AWS credentials at rest.
HKDF
HKDF (HMAC-based Key Derivation Function) is a cryptographic function for deriving one or more keys from a shared secret. storafleet uses HKDF-SHA256 to derive a unique per-user encryption key from the server's master encryption key and each user's unique ID. This ensures that no two users share an encryption key, even if the same master secret is used.