1. Zero-Egress Guarantee & Mathematical Proof
We believe trust shouldn't be based on a privacy policy promising not to spy on you. Trust should be based on the physical inability to do so. Unlike Sumatra's "trust our open source" approach, Nighthawk has entirely removed the capability to phone home.
DIY Verification (2 minutes): Open Windows Command Prompt as Administrator and run netstat -b while Nighthawk is open. You will see exactly zero network connections originating from the application. You can also run it inside a Wireshark sandbox—you will observe zero outbound packets, zero telemetry pings, and zero DNS queries.
2. Code Signing & SHA-256 Hashes (v1.0.0)
Verify the integrity of your download. Below are the cryptographic checksums and our clean VirusTotal report.
Nighthawk-Setup.exe (Windows 64-bit Installer)
SHA-256:
3BDE425564851480E5AB6B798CD7F79CA56520C3CA5621A55831822626696AE9
Nighthawk-Windows-Portable.zip (No-Install Portable)
SHA-256:
08F75C86584E1C507B83941A9E673C95B3B1DB0339E67C3DD24D9008D6BE3709
How to Verify with PowerShell
Open Windows PowerShell in the folder where your download is saved and run:
Get-FileHash Nighthawk-Setup.exe -Algorithm SHA2563. OS Permissions Table
Nighthawk only requests the permissions strictly necessary to render documents. We do not integrate tracking SDKs.
| Permission | Status | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| File System Access | YES | Required to open and save PDF files locally. |
| Internet / Network | NO | Zero-egress architecture. No telemetry. |
| Webcam / Microphone | NO | Not required for a document reader. |
| Location Services | NO | Not required. |
4. Honest Threat Model
We believe honesty is a core trust signal. Here is what Nighthawk protects against, and what it does not.
What we protect against: Malicious network exfiltration. Since Nighthawk has no networking capabilities, a compromised PDF cannot use Nighthawk to phone home, download additional payloads, or upload your local files to a remote server. We also disable JavaScript execution, neutralizing 99% of PDF-based active exploits.
What we DO NOT protect against: Nighthawk is not a full hardware sandbox. While we disable JS, zero-day memory parsing exploits in the underlying PDF specification could theoretically execute local code if you open a highly sophisticated, weaponized document. If you are handling nation-state level threats, use a dedicated air-gapped VM.
5. Responsible Disclosure & Developer Identity
Nighthawk PDF Reader is engineered by Sriram Kumar, a native systems software engineer dedicated to building lightweight, non-bloated desktop tools.
- Open Source / Public Repo: github.com/sailin0037/nightwank
- Security Vulnerability Disclosure: If you discover any memory safety or parsing issue, please email
security@nighthawkpdfreader.app. We guarantee a 48-hour acknowledgment, provide our PGP key upon request, and pledge no legal action against good-faith researchers.
Release Changelog
v1.0.0 Stable (Initial Production Release)
- Native C++ Direct2D hardware-accelerated rendering engine with 60fps locked scrolling.
- Biological Dark Modes: 'Predator' (deep green OLED) and 'Night Vision' (luminance-preserving amber).
- Complete free annotation suite: text highlighting, freehand drawing, and standard PDF note export.
- Biometric Vault for local document encryption via Windows Hello.
- Zero telemetry, zero ads, zero mandatory account registration.