PromptDustCaches
ChatGPT Desktop
The ChatGPT desktop app caches conversation data locally; earlier versions stored it in cleartext.
Exposure
- Stores found
- 1
- Holds
- API keys · personal data · source code
- Confidence
- likely
Where it writes
1 store in the current signature database. Paths shown for a typical macOS install.
LevelDB may hold API keys · personal data · source code
- macOS
~/Library/Application Support/com.openai.chatdir - macOS
~/Library/Containers/com.openai.chat/Data/Library/Application Supportdir - Windows
~/AppData/Local/Packages/OpenAI.ChatGPT-Desktop_*dir
The ChatGPT desktop app caches conversation data locally; earlier versions stored it in cleartext.
- Keep the app up to date (a 2024 fix moved this into the sandbox container).
- Sign out to clear locally cached conversations.
Source: arxiv.org
What to do about it
PromptDust flags these stores and leaves them in place; cleanup is your call. If a store holds a live secret, rotate the secret first, since deleting the file won’t un-leak a key that already sat in plain text.
For ongoing work, keep sensitive material out of sessions where you can, and prune old transcripts and caches now and then.
This describes where ChatGPT Desktop stores data. Metadata only, never your content. Confidence: likely. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
See if this one’s on your machine.
One pass finds every store, for this tool and the other 51.