EFSDump

EFSDump is a lightweight, portable utility that has the role of displaying the accounts that are authorized to access encrypted files on a computer. Part of Sysinternals Suite, the tool was launched more than a decade ago, at the same time when Windows 2000 was launched. The latter operating system introduced a new feature dubbed Encrypted File System (EFS) that has the role of protecting users' sensitive information. The tool basically reads the API from EFS and shows the accounts that can access the sensitive and encrypted files.

EFS is still a valuable feature in the latest Windows operating system and can provide an extra layer of security for the files and folders. The tool mainly addresses users who share computers with others and configured several accounts, some with limited accessibility. Users can employ it to double check if some of their work or education files can be accessed by other accounts. If a sensitive file can be accessed via another account than the users, then they can take the necessary actions, such as make it read only or forbid anyone logged on another account from opening the sensitive file. The tool does not allow the editing of permissions and users need to rely on other third-party tools for this purpose.