Nothing at all is safe from the root account, or from any user that can elevate to root. Think of the root account as the system itself - the thing you’re trying to protect may be encrypted and safe at rest if you’ve brought it in from elsewhere, but as soon as you enter a password and decrypt it, you’re handing that password and decrypted data over to a system fully controlled by that root account.





But root can scrape that password as soon as you enter it, and has access to that encrypted data as soon as you decrypt it. That’s what I’m saying.
If you think anything on a *nix system is “safe” from root or a user that can elevate to root, you’re deluding yourself with wishful thinking.