Spring Boot Field Encryption: Making GCM-Based Protection Simple and Secure

Manual field-level encryption in Spring Boot applications is error-prone and repetitive, particularly when choosing between AES modes—CBC provides confidentiality but lacks integrity verification, while GCM-mode encryption ensures both with built-in authentication tags. By packaging encryption logic into a single annotation through frameworks like Nucleus, teams reduce implementation complexity, minimize security mistakes, and establish consistent encryption practices across their codebase.