moonD4rk/HackBrowserData · error

file is empty

Error message

file is empty

What it means

readFileContent queried the duplicated handle's size with GetFileSizeEx, got 0 bytes, and returned this guard error before attempting any mapping or read. It means the locked file is genuinely empty on disk (e.g. a freshly created but not-yet-flushed database, or all data still in the writer's WAL), so there is nothing to copy via this path.

Source

Thrown at filemanager/copy_windows.go:117

		}
		_ = windows.CloseHandle(dupHandle)
	}

	return 0, fmt.Errorf("no process has file open: %s", targetPath)
}

// readFileContent reads file content from a duplicated handle.
// It uses FileMapping first (CreateFileMapping + MapViewOfFile), which reads
// from the OS kernel's file cache — this includes WAL data that Chrome has
// written but not yet checkpointed to the main file. Falls back to ReadFile
// if FileMapping fails.
func readFileContent(handle windows.Handle) ([]byte, error) {
	fileSize, err := winapi.GetFileSizeEx(handle)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if fileSize == 0 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("file is empty")
	}

	size := int(fileSize)

	// Try FileMapping first — reads from kernel file cache, includes WAL data
	if data, err := winapi.MapFile(handle, size); err == nil {
		return data, nil
	}

	// FileMapping failed, fall back to ReadFile.
	// Seek to beginning first — the handle's file pointer may be at an
	// arbitrary position.
	if _, err := windows.Seek(handle, 0, 0); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("seek to start: %w", err)
	}
	data := make([]byte, size)
	var bytesRead uint32
	if err := windows.ReadFile(handle, data, &bytesRead, nil); err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 0503d04d7a)

Solutions

1. Skip the copy and treat the source as having no data yet
2. Retry after the owning process flushes/checkpoints its writes
3. Read the companion -wal file instead if the data lives there
4. Confirm the duplicated handle refers to the intended file, not a truncated placeholder

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at filemanager/copy_windows.go:117 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of moonD4rk/HackBrowserData@0503d04d7a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6cd9022162617ea8. Report an issue: GitHub.