Metadata Scrubber

A Java command-line application to scrub metadata from images and videos, removing any evidence of origin.

Features

• Removes EXIF and other metadata from image files (JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP)
• Strips metadata from video files (MP4, AVI, MKV, MOV, WMV, FLV) using FFmpeg
• Processes single files or directories recursively
• Command-line interface with options for input/output

Prerequisites

• Java 11 or higher
• FFmpeg installed (for video processing)

Installation

Option 1: Download Pre-built Release (Recommended)

1. Go to the Releases page
2. Download the latest metadata-scrubber-X.X.X.jar file
3. Place it in your desired directory

Option 2: Build from Source

mvn clean package

This will create a shaded JAR in target/metadata-scrubber-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar

Usage

java -jar target/metadata-scrubber-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar [options] <input>

Options

• <input>: Input file or directory to process
• -o, --output <dir>: Output directory for scrubbed files (optional, overwrites originals if not specified)
• -r, --recursive: Process directories recursively
• -h, --help: Show help message
• -V, --version: Show version

Examples

Scrub a single image:

java -jar target/metadata-scrubber-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar image.jpg

Scrub all files in a directory and save to output folder:

java -jar target/metadata-scrubber-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar -o scrubbed/ -r input_dir/

FFmpeg Installation

Windows

winget install ffmpeg

macOS

brew install ffmpeg

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Verify Installation

ffmpeg -version

Development

This project uses Maven for build management and includes a comprehensive .gitignore for Java development.

Dependencies

• Picocli: Command-line interface framework
• ImageIO (built-in): Image metadata handling

License

See LICENSE file.