📌 Introduction
In the digital age, we create, edit, and share various files every day—Word documents, PDF reports, Excel spreadsheets, images, and more. You might think these files only contain the content you want to share, but in reality, they may hide large amounts of metadata information you don't want to make public. This metadata could leak your personal privacy, business secrets, or even sensitive information.
📌 What is Metadata?
Metadata is data that describes data, containing various attribute information about files, such as:
- Author, modifier, creation time, modification time - Software version, operating system information - Geographic location (for photos) - Document statistics (word count, page count, etc.) - Hidden comments and revision records - Original file path
While this information may seem insignificant, in certain situations it could be exploited by malicious actors, causing privacy breaches or security risks.
📌 Limitations of Traditional Methods
Most people check metadata by using the file property viewers built into operating systems or simple metadata viewing tools. But these methods all share a common limitation: they can only check surface-level metadata of files, ignoring metadata that may exist in nested attachments within the files.
📌 Comprehensive Metadata Checking Methods
To comprehensively check file metadata information leaks, you need a tool that can dive deep into file internals. Metadata Online is such a tool that uses recursive scanning technology to:
1. Check all metadata of the file itself: Including basic information like author, modification time, software version, etc.
2. Deep dive into file internals: Find all nested attachments, such as images in Word documents, embedded files in PDFs, etc.
3. Check attachment metadata: Recursively check all metadata information for each attachment
4. Mark risk levels: Automatically mark high, medium, and low-risk metadata, helping you quickly identify sensitive information
📌 Usage Steps
Using Metadata Online to check file metadata is very simple:
1. Visit https://metadata-online.com
2. Click "Metadata Viewer"
3. Upload the file you want to check
4. Wait for the system to complete recursive scanning
5. Review scan results and pay attention to high-risk marked information
📌 Conclusion
Metadata leakage is an easily overlooked but very important security issue. By comprehensively checking file metadata, including metadata from nested attachments, you can effectively avoid unintentional information leakage.
Visit Metadata Online now and comprehensively check your file metadata security!