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Integrity Shield is a lightweight file integrity monitoring tool built in Python.

It scans directories, generates SHA-256 hashes for files/folders, and compares snapshots to detect changes such as modifications, new files, or missing files.

Designed as a simple but practical introduction to filesystem security concepts, hashing, and CLI tool design.

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🔒 Why Use Integrity Shield/SHA-256?

• Integrity Shield uses SHA-256 cryptographic hashing to verify file integrity.

• SHA-256 produces a unique fingerprint for every file scanned.

• Even a single byte change - whether from modification, corruption, or tampering - generates a completely different hash value.

• This allows Integrity Shield to reliably detect:

  • Modified Files
  • Injected Content
  • Corruption
  • Missing Files
  • Newly added files

Due to the avalanche effect of cryptographic hashing, even the smallest file change results in a dramatically different output hash, making SHA-256 a trusted standard for integrity verification and cybersecurity tooling.

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🚀 Features

• 📁 Recursive folder scanning
• 🔒 SHA-256 file hashing
• 📷 Snapshot creation and storage
• 🔍 Integrity verification against saved snapshots
• ⚠️ Detection of:
  • Modified Files
  • New Files
  • Missing Files
• 🖥️ Clean TUI
• 🧹 Auto-clear interface for smooth interaction
• 👤 User-safe storage using home directory config path

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🧠 What I Learned Building This

This project was built to strengthen my understanding of:

• Python file handling
• Directory Transversal
• Hashing Algorithms
• CLI/TUI Structure and user flow design
• Clean Architecture for small tools

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⚙️ How It Works

1. The tool scans a target directory recursively
2. Each file is hashed using SHA-256
3. A snapshot is saved locally
4. Future scans compare current hashes against the saved snapshot to determine file(s) integrity
5. Differences are reported as:
   • New File
   • Modified
   • Missing

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📦 Installation

1. Clone This Repo

git clone https://github.com/ethanlabs101/integrity-shield.git

2. Run Script

cd integrity-shield
python3 main.py

Only Python and Git required to run. No extra external dependencies needed

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▶️ Usage

1. Run the tool:

python3 main.py

2. Then Choose Menu Option:

[1] Save Snapshot
[2] Check Snapshot
[3] Exit

📸 Save Snapshot

• Enter target folder path
• Tool generates SHA-256 hashes
• Snapshot stored locally

🔍 Check Snapshot

• Enter the same folder path
• Tool compares current state vs saved snapshot
• Outputs any changes detected

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📂 Snapshot Storage

Snapshots are stored locally in:

~/.integrity_shield_snapshot.json

This ensures:

• No permission issues
• Works across different systems/users
• Keeps project directory clean

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📚 Tech Stack

• Python 3
• hashlib (SHA-256)
• os /pathlib
• json
• CLI-based UI (custom TUI)

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⚠️ Notes

• Designed for user-space directory scanning (Non-system/protected files).
• Not intended as a full system-wide/large scale audit tool.
• Uses a single snapshot database.
• Saving a new snapshot overwrites the previous stored baseline (1 at a time).

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📜 License

This project is open source and released under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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🌐 Contact

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