File Attachments

Note: In order for scanned attachments to be blocked for an AI App, there must be a Policy with the Data Protection guardrail enabled, the Inspect Attachments checkbox checked, the AI App included as a Destination, and a Guardrail Action of Block. Read below for details.

File Attachments Configuration

To view and configure the ABP, Navigate to the Policy Console, and click on the Attachment Block Policy row.

At the top of the ABP console is a list of AI Applications, that can be individually configured to block or allow attachments.

When attachments are allowed for an individual application, the files will be scanned for content in violation of your Data Protection Guardrails. GuardRail Actions can be chosen to block or allow file attachments that match your GuardRail settings.

File attachments for all apps are allowed by default. This is displayed at the bottom of the ABP console labeled “For all other applications:”. Currently you can not configure ABP to block all applications.

WitnessAI File Attachments page showing the ‘Attachment Block Policy’ configuration page. The page shows Application-specific policies with Google Gemini set to ‘Allow Attachments’ and Microsoft Copilot Personal with options to ‘Allow Attachments’ or ‘Block Attachments’. The ‘For all other applications’ section shows ‘Allow Attachments’ as the default.

Blocking File Attachments With Policies

In order for scanned attachments to be blocked for an AI App, there must be a Policy with the Data Protection guardrail enabled, the Inspect Attachments checkbox checked, the AI App included as a Destination, and a Guardrail Action of Block. See the File Attachments documentation for details.

WitnessAI policy editor showing ‘Vineeth’s Test Policy’ (Version 1) with the Data Protection GuardRail tab selected. The ‘Enable GuardRail’ toggle is on, and the ‘Inspect Attachments’ checkbox (highlighted with orange border) is enabled with note ‘Only text and PDF files under 100 MB’. The ‘Anonymize sensitive data before sending to the AI Model’ checkbox is enabled. Action is set to Block.

After attachments are scanned, prompts continue to be processed by the rest of your Policies.

File Attachments In Conversations

The Conversation Details slide-out sidebar displays information on files processed. Files less than 100MB are supported. Larger files and files containing malware are blocked.

Responses from applications containing files are not scanned or blocked, allowing users to save them as needed.

WitnessAI Conversations view showing file attachments in the Conversation Details sidebar. The sidebar shows a file upload notification (’File text1.csv was uploaded successfully.’) and blocked attachment prompts for Microsoft Copilot (Personal) shown with red BLOCKED labels. The Conversations list on the left shows multiple conversations with file attachment activity.

File Attachments In Alerts

Blocked attachments will generate alerts in the Alerts console. Alerts with blocked file attachments will display the text “Confirm File Upload” in the Intent column.

The sidebar displays the details of the alert.

WitnessAI Alerts console showing 518 file attachment alerts with an alert details sidebar open on the right. The sidebar shows ‘Process document content (analyze selected by Data Protection guardrail)’ with alert details including Scores, Subject, GuardRail (Virtual Test Data Protection), and Conversation information. The Alerts list shows multiple Data Leakage and file upload alerts with red HIGH severity indicators.

File Attachments Supported

Currently all text-based files can be scanned. For example, all files that can be opened and read with a text editor. Examples include:

Plain Text: .txt, .log, .eml
Source Code: .c, .cpp, .java, .js, .html, .css, .py etc...
Markup and Data: .xml, .json, .csv, .tsv
Documents: .rtf, .docx , .md (Markdown)
Configuration: .ini, .cfg, .rc, .reg
Other: .sh (shell scripts), .ps (PostScript)
MS Office: .docx .pptx .xlsx
PDFs

File Attachments File Attachments Configuration Blocking File Attachments With Policies File Attachments In Conversations File Attachments In Alerts File Attachments Supported