Phantom is designed as a native macOS in-place privacy guard and anti-snooping utility. Understanding its protection boundaries is essential for proper deployment.

• Casual Bystander Snooping: Hides files and folders in-place so they do not appear in Finder directory views.
• System Search & Index Leakage: Strips metadata visibility from Spotlight searches, Siri suggestions, and Recent Items.
• Accidental Exposure: Prevents inadvertent sharing via AirDrop discovery lists, screen sharing, presentation sessions, or temporary Mac lending.
• Inadvertent File Alteration: Applies system-level permission locking on protected items to prevent accidental modification or deletion while locked.

• Cryptographic File Payload Encryption: Phantom does not rewrite or re-encode file contents with block ciphers. File data remains at original storage blocks to eliminate write-interruption and data loss risks on large files.
• Same-User Process or Terminal Access: Any process or terminal session running with administrative privileges under the same macOS user account can inspect local filesystem attributes.
• Digital Forensics & Raw Disk Access: Physical extraction of storage media or forensic block-level inspection tools can read raw file blocks directly from unencrypted partitions.
• Backup Duplication: Standard file-based backups (such as Time Machine) may archive hidden files if configured to traverse all user paths.

For high-threat environments requiring defense against physical hardware seizure or hostile forensic inspection, users should combine Phantom with full-disk encryption (FileVault) or specialized cryptographic disk images.

We take the security of Phantom seriously. If you identify a security vulnerability, privilege escalation flaw, or unintended credential exposure:

1. Do not disclose the issue publicly in public GitHub issues, pull requests, or discussion forums.
2. Submit your report directly via GitHub Private Vulnerability Reporting on the repository, or email security@meowvia.com.
3. Include detailed steps to reproduce the issue, macOS version, chip architecture, and any proof-of-concept scripts.

We will acknowledge receipt within 48 hours and provide an estimated timeline for remediation.