Security and privacy
Tip
TL;DR — Installed mode stores passwords as DPAPI blobs in your registry hive, readable only by your Windows account on that machine. Portable mode stores them in a file encrypted with AES-256-CBC, key derived with PBKDF2 from a passphrase you choose. NcDavTray talks to your Nextcloud server and to nothing else — the only exception is the update check, which is off by default and asks GitHub.
| Installed | Portable | |
|---|---|---|
| Stored in | HKCU\Software\NcDavTray\Accounts |
NDT_secret.dat next to the script |
| Protected with | Windows DPAPI, bound to your user account | AES-256-CBC, key from PBKDF2, 100 000 iterations |
| Unlocked by | being logged in as that user on that machine | the passphrase you set when exporting |
| Copy it elsewhere? | useless — DPAPI will not decrypt it | works, if you know the passphrase |
An account password belongs to the server/user pair, not to a single mount: two mounts of the same account are one and the same login, and letting them hold two different passwords would mean finding out about a change only when the other one stops working. A share-link password belongs to its mount, because a token is handed out once and used once.
Passwords are never written in plain text and never passed on a command line. In portable mode they are decrypted into memory for the session and no further.
Important
Use a Nextcloud app password, created under Profile → Security — not your login password. An app password can be revoked on the server without changing anything else, and it cannot be used to log into the web interface.
NcDavTray connects to your Nextcloud server for:
- the reachability and maintenance-mode check (
/status.php), - the folder picker and its validation (the Nextcloud OCS API),
- the server favicon and your avatar, used as the drive icon and in the interface,
- the WebDAV operations that map and unmap the drive.
And to github.com for exactly one thing: the update check, when you press the button or switched on the startup check. It is off by default.
Note
No telemetry, no analytics, no third-party services. The favicon and avatar come from your own server, not from a CDN.
| Export | Contains the passwords? | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| JSON (Export configuration) | yes, as DPAPI blobs | restoring this installation, on this machine, as this user. Worthless anywhere else |
| Portable (Export to portable) | yes, re-encrypted with a passphrase you choose | carrying the setup to another machine or a USB stick |
Caution
The portable export is the one that travels — which also means it is the one that can be stolen and attacked offline. Choose a passphrase that deserves that, and treat NDT_secret.dat like the password it contains.
On disconnect and on exit, NcDavTray unmaps the drive and removes the cosmetic branding it applied — the Explorer label and the drive icon — so no stale entries are left behind in your registry or in Explorer.
The optional cache auto-clear goes one step further and wipes what the Windows redirector cached, which is not removed by unmapping.
