diff --git a/backend/deps/auth.py b/backend/deps/auth.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a48bf8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/deps/auth.py
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+"""
+FastAPI authentication dependency chain for DocuVault.
+
+Provides two reusable FastAPI dependencies:
+  - get_current_user: validates the Bearer JWT and returns the User ORM object
+  - get_current_admin: requires user.role == 'admin' (T-02-07)
+
+Usage in route handlers:
+    from deps.auth import get_current_user, get_current_admin
+    from db.models import User
+
+    @router.get("/me")
+    async def get_me(current_user: User = Depends(get_current_user)):
+        return {"id": str(current_user.id), "email": current_user.email}
+
+    @router.get("/admin/users")
+    async def list_users(
+        _admin: User = Depends(get_current_admin),
+        session: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db),
+    ):
+        ...
+"""
+import uuid
+
+from fastapi import Depends, HTTPException, status
+from fastapi.security import HTTPAuthorizationCredentials, HTTPBearer
+from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import AsyncSession
+
+from db.models import User
+from deps.db import get_db
+from services import auth as auth_service
+
+# HTTPBearer parses the Authorization: Bearer <token> header.
+# auto_error=True (default) raises 403 if no Authorization header is present.
+security = HTTPBearer()
+
+
+async def get_current_user(
+    credentials: HTTPAuthorizationCredentials = Depends(security),
+    session: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db),
+) -> User:
+    """Validate the Bearer JWT and return the active User ORM object.
+
+    Raises HTTP 401 if:
+      - Token is missing, expired, or tampered (handled by HTTPBearer + decode)
+      - User does not exist in the database
+      - User account is deactivated (is_active=False)
+    """
+    try:
+        payload = auth_service.decode_access_token(credentials.credentials)
+    except ValueError as exc:
+        raise HTTPException(
+            status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED,
+            detail="Invalid or expired token",
+            headers={"WWW-Authenticate": "Bearer"},
+        ) from exc
+
+    try:
+        user_uuid = uuid.UUID(payload["sub"])
+    except (KeyError, ValueError) as exc:
+        raise HTTPException(
+            status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED,
+            detail="Invalid token subject",
+            headers={"WWW-Authenticate": "Bearer"},
+        ) from exc
+
+    user = await session.get(User, user_uuid)
+    if user is None or not user.is_active:
+        raise HTTPException(
+            status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED,
+            detail="User not found or deactivated",
+            headers={"WWW-Authenticate": "Bearer"},
+        )
+
+    return user
+
+
+async def get_current_admin(
+    user: User = Depends(get_current_user),
+) -> User:
+    """Require admin role; raises HTTP 403 otherwise (T-02-07).
+
+    Admin impersonation is architecturally excluded (ADMIN-07, T-02-08):
+    no code path sets a JWT sub to a different user's id. This dependency
+    only checks that the authenticated user's role is 'admin'.
+    """
+    if user.role != "admin":
+        raise HTTPException(
+            status_code=status.HTTP_403_FORBIDDEN,
+            detail="Admin access required",
+        )
+    return user
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_auth_deps.py b/backend/tests/test_auth_deps.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd133fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/tests/test_auth_deps.py
@@ -0,0 +1,160 @@
+"""
+Tests for backend/deps/auth.py — FastAPI dependency chain.
+
+Tests verify:
+  - get_current_user returns the User ORM object when a valid Bearer token is provided
+  - get_current_user raises HTTP 401 for expired/tampered tokens
+  - get_current_user raises HTTP 401 when user.is_active is False
+  - get_current_admin raises HTTP 403 when user.role == "user"
+  - get_current_admin returns user when user.role == "admin"
+"""
+import uuid
+
+import pytest
+import pytest_asyncio
+from httpx import ASGITransport, AsyncClient
+from fastapi import FastAPI, Depends
+from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import AsyncSession
+
+
+# ── Minimal test app with /test/me and /test/admin routes ─────────────────────
+
+def make_test_app():
+    """Create a minimal FastAPI app that exercises the auth deps."""
+    from deps.auth import get_current_user, get_current_admin
+    from db.models import User
+
+    test_app = FastAPI()
+
+    @test_app.get("/test/me")
+    async def get_me(current_user: User = Depends(get_current_user)):
+        return {"id": str(current_user.id), "role": current_user.role}
+
+    @test_app.get("/test/admin")
+    async def admin_only(_admin: User = Depends(get_current_admin)):
+        return {"role": _admin.role}
+
+    return test_app
+
+
+@pytest_asyncio.fixture
+async def auth_client(db_session: AsyncSession):
+    """Async HTTP test client for the auth-dep test app."""
+    from deps.db import get_db
+
+    app = make_test_app()
+    app.dependency_overrides[get_db] = lambda: db_session
+
+    async with AsyncClient(transport=ASGITransport(app=app), base_url="http://test") as c:
+        yield c
+
+    app.dependency_overrides.clear()
+
+
+async def _create_user(db_session, role: str = "user", is_active: bool = True):
+    """Helper: insert a minimal User row into the test DB."""
+    from db.models import User
+    from services.auth import hash_password
+
+    user = User(
+        id=uuid.uuid4(),
+        handle=f"user_{uuid.uuid4().hex[:6]}",
+        email=f"{uuid.uuid4().hex[:6]}@example.com",
+        password_hash=hash_password("testpassword"),
+        role=role,
+        is_active=is_active,
+    )
+    db_session.add(user)
+    await db_session.commit()
+    return user
+
+
+# ── Tests ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_get_current_user_returns_user(auth_client, db_session):
+    """A valid Bearer token should return the user's id and role."""
+    from services.auth import create_access_token
+
+    user = await _create_user(db_session, role="user")
+    token = create_access_token(str(user.id), "user")
+
+    resp = await auth_client.get(
+        "/test/me", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"}
+    )
+    assert resp.status_code == 200
+    data = resp.json()
+    assert data["id"] == str(user.id)
+    assert data["role"] == "user"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_get_current_user_rejects_tampered_token(auth_client):
+    """A tampered Bearer token should return 401."""
+    tampered = "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJmYWtlIn0.invalidsig"
+    resp = await auth_client.get(
+        "/test/me", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {tampered}"}
+    )
+    assert resp.status_code == 401
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_get_current_user_rejects_inactive_user(auth_client, db_session):
+    """A valid token for an inactive user should return 401."""
+    from services.auth import create_access_token
+
+    user = await _create_user(db_session, role="user", is_active=False)
+    token = create_access_token(str(user.id), "user")
+
+    resp = await auth_client.get(
+        "/test/me", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"}
+    )
+    assert resp.status_code == 401
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_get_current_admin_rejects_non_admin(auth_client, db_session):
+    """A regular user (role='user') should get 403 on admin endpoint."""
+    from services.auth import create_access_token
+
+    user = await _create_user(db_session, role="user")
+    token = create_access_token(str(user.id), "user")
+
+    resp = await auth_client.get(
+        "/test/admin", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"}
+    )
+    assert resp.status_code == 403
+    assert "Admin" in resp.json()["detail"]
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_get_current_admin_allows_admin(auth_client, db_session):
+    """An admin user (role='admin') should get 200 on admin endpoint."""
+    from services.auth import create_access_token
+
+    admin_user = await _create_user(db_session, role="admin")
+    token = create_access_token(str(admin_user.id), "admin")
+
+    resp = await auth_client.get(
+        "/test/admin", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"}
+    )
+    assert resp.status_code == 200
+    assert resp.json()["role"] == "admin"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_get_current_user_missing_token(auth_client):
+    """Missing Authorization header should return 401 or 403 (HTTPBearer default)."""
+    resp = await auth_client.get("/test/me")
+    assert resp.status_code in (401, 403)  # HTTPBearer raises 403 in older fastapi, 401 in newer
+
+
+def test_deps_auth_has_http_403():
+    """deps/auth.py must contain an HTTPException(status.HTTP_403_FORBIDDEN) check."""
+    import re
+    import os
+    path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "..", "deps", "auth.py")
+    with open(path) as f:
+        source = f.read()
+    assert re.search(r"HTTP_403_FORBIDDEN", source), \
+        "deps/auth.py must raise HTTP 403 for non-admin access"