List of ALL leaked metadata

Help
1

Greetings, According to docs,

there are some metadata that Cryptomator does not encrypt:

  1. access,
  2. modification,
  3. and creation timestamps of files and folders,
  4. number of files
  5. and folders in a vault and in the folders, and
  6. size of the stored files

Is this all? are every other metadata encrypted? maybe some EXIF from a .JPG file etc. are missed?
I use mat2 for some metadata removal and it says:

There is no reliable way to detect every single possible metadata for complex file formats.

This is why you shouldn’t rely on metadata’s presence to decide if your file must be cleaned or not.

so what is Cryptomator is doing under the hood? should i consider VeraCrypt if i’m concerned regarding metadata leakage of complex file formats?

Thanks

2

Welcome to the Cryptomator Community :slightly_smiling_face:,

Yes.

There are two “kinds” of metadata:

  1. One is stored inside the file.
  2. One is stored outside/next to the file (e.g. extendend attributes)

The first one is protected by Cryptomator. And the second one is not supported, i.e. it won’t be copied if you copy the file into a Cryptomator vault.

If you need extended attributes, then you should consider a different app.

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3

Hello and happy new year
Thanks for your response, may I ask some clarifying questions?

  1. By

Do you mean “encrypted” by Cryptomator or “redacted/removed”??

because to describe the opposite second type, you said

what is an example of these data? do you mean they are “deleted” or just “not encrypted” and in the clear view?

are theses examples correct? a MS Word author is an example of the the first type(inside the file) that is somehow “protected” and file creation timestamp is an example(among the other 5 i listed) of second type(outside/next to file) that will remain in clear view?

the only thing I “need” is to sleep good at night knowing that cloud providers know as little about me as possible. I don’t need to “keep” any metadata in my possession.

Thank you a lot for taking the time to elaborate on this immensely important topic, It is very much appreciated

4

Hi

Encrypted

For example, if You are using Dropbox, there are some extended, not standard file attributes added to each file ( What extended attributes does Dropbox support? - Dropbox Help ).

Extended file attributes have to be supported by the file system. The virtual file system of a cryptomator vault does not support any extended (means not standard) file attributes. You will receive a message if you are copying a file with these attributes to a cryptomator vault and be notified, that these attributes will be removed. For me personal, I never had this message, so it seems to me extended file attributes are not that common.

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5

Thanks for the clarification, i think i feel a little better now, knowing the only 6 metadata leaked to the cloud, intentionally, are for auto-sync purposes ( which are useless to me since i only want to upload the vault manually) and no other metadata from obscure file format is going to be leaked.