SpaceSharp Privacy and security
The short version: SpaceSharp reads metadata about your files, writes a few files under your own profile, deletes to the Recycle Bin unless you choose Delete permanently, and talks to the network only to check for updates. SECURITY.md in the repository is the authoritative statement and says how to report a vulnerability privately.
Reading
File and folder metadata (names, sizes, dates, attributes) on the drives and folders you choose to scan. The fast scan reads the NTFS master file table, which is the same metadata in one place. File contents are read in one case only: the duplicate finder, when you run it, reads the files that share a size with another to compare them, and keeps only a hash while it works.
Administrator rights
The main window never runs elevated. For the fast scan it starts a second copy of its own exe through the normal Windows prompt; that copy reads the file table, hands the tree back over a local pipe and exits. Decline the prompt and the folder walk runs with your normal rights.
Writing
Only under your own profile:
| Where | What |
|---|---|
%AppData%\SpaceSharp\settings.json |
Settings |
%LocalAppData%\SpaceSharp\scans |
The last scan of each drive or folder and the one before it, as gzip-compressed .sscan files: full paths, sizes, dates and attributes, never contents |
%LocalAppData%\SpaceSharp\palettes |
Custom palettes |
%LocalAppData%\SpaceSharp\achievements.json |
Which achievements you have and when, and the counters a few of them need |
%LocalAppData%\SpaceSharp\logs |
Crash logs (the last twenty), written only on an unexpected error: the exception, stack traces, the version, the Windows version and the install kind |
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes |
The Explorer right-click entry, only if you turn it on, removed when you turn it off |
Deleting
Only what you select and confirm, and to the Recycle Bin, with one exception: Delete permanently on the right-click menu, for the folders Explorer cannot open, deletes for good after a dialog that says so. Files in protected locations are refused by Windows. SpaceSharp never deletes anything on its own; Safe to clear, the duplicate finder and the empty folder list suggest, you decide. The duplicate finder is the one feature that reads file contents, and only of the files you ask it to compare; it keeps nothing of them.
Network
Installed copies ask api.github.com for new releases a few seconds after start and download updates from github.com; Settings › Behavior turns the check off. The portable exe makes no network requests at all. There is no telemetry, no analytics, no account.
Single instance
A second launch hands its command line to the running window over a local named pipe and exits. The pipe is per user session.
Downloads and signing
Release builds are produced by installer/release.ps1 on the developer's PC and code-signed with a Certum certificate; the commit they come from is tagged with the version. Check a file in Properties › Digital Signatures, or in PowerShell:
Get-AuthenticodeSignature .\SpaceSharp-win-x64.exe
SHA256SUMS.txt on every release lists each file's hash.
Dependencies
One package: Velopack, for the installer and updater. Everything else is .NET and Windows. THIRD-PARTY.md lists licenses.
Reporting a vulnerability
Do not open a public issue. Use the repository's Security tab › Report a vulnerability. Only the latest release receives fixes.