The Desktop Bridge
Google Chrome features an extremely powerful API known as the “File System Access API.” This allows highly advanced web applications—such as browser-based code editors or video rendering tools—to reach directly out of the browser sandbox and manipulate files natively on your physical hard drive. While this allows web apps to behave like traditional desktop software, it is a terrifying security risk. If you accidentally grant a malicious website access to your file system, it can silently encrypt your documents or steal your local configuration files. You must completely lock out this bridge.
How to Block File System Access Globally
You can permanently sever the browser’s ability to edit your local files via the Site Settings.
- Open the Google Chrome desktop browser.
- Click the three vertical dots (â‹®) in the top right corner and select Settings.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Privacy and security.
- In the main window, click on Site settings.
- Scroll down to the bottom and click to expand Additional permissions.
- Click on File editing (or “File system” in some Chrome builds).
- Under the “Default behavior” heading, select the radio button for “Don’t allow sites to edit files or folders on your device.”
A Secure Sandbox
The change takes effect instantly. Google Chrome will completely sever its internal connection to the Windows Explorer or macOS Finder API. The browser will instantly auto-reject every single background request from any website attempting to establish read/write access to your local disk. You will never see a permission pop-up, and you can browse the internet with the absolute guarantee that your web browser is securely sandboxed away from your critical local data.