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Clean/Archive to Reduce Project file Size

M | Last updated: Apr 23, 2018 10:38PM UTC

Hi, There should be a way to cleanup and reduce project file size to a bare minimum like selectively removing specific stuff from the project file like responses or requests and keeping only settings and vulnerabilities and in-scope items maps

PortSwigger Agent | Last updated: Apr 24, 2018 01:13PM UTC

Hi Mike, Thanks for your message. Yes, you can do this using "Save copy of project" which is on the Burp menu. There's an option to "Save in-scope items only" Please let us know if you need any further assistance.

Burp User | Last updated: Apr 24, 2018 05:07PM UTC

Great! I didn't know about that, I had a 2GB project and that reduced it to 67MB Thank You

exploresecurity | Last updated: Apr 18, 2024 05:04PM UTC

Sadly this answer can't always be used. The app I'm testing at the moment generates 1000s of useless requests. Unfortunately I can't make use of the target scope because the URL is common to all API calls: the actual class.method endpoint is in the request body I tried filtering and deleting a load of requests from the proxy history, but no change in project file size. I did wonder if all I was doing by deleting history items was removing pointers. And I thought I was on to something when I found all my "deleted" requests in the site map. So I carefully filtered and deleted those - and still the project file size was the same! I did restart Burp, and also tried making a copy - no difference. Am I missing something or once something is saved to the project file, can it not be removed?

Hannah, PortSwigger Agent | Last updated: Apr 19, 2024 01:12PM UTC

Hi Once something is saved to a project file, the only way to fully remove it is to delete it from the project file and then take a copy of the project file. Alternatively, you can exclude data from different tools or exclude out-of-scope data.

exploresecurity | Last updated: Apr 22, 2024 12:42PM UTC

Thanks for the reply but, as I mentioned, I can't exclude out-of-scope data because I don't believe the current scope functionality allows me to exclude based on something in the request body. Otherwise, when you say "delete it from the project file" - how exactly? That's the problem I'm having! I've tried deleting thousands of requests from Target and Proxy but no difference in file size, and I don't think you mean to edit the project file itself.

Hannah, PortSwigger Agent | Last updated: Apr 23, 2024 10:37AM UTC

Hi Using "Right click > Delete item" will delete the reference to that item, but the original object will remain in your project file. After deleting content from your project file, the only way to fully remove the objects and reduce the project file size is to use "Project > Save copy". When Burp saves a copy, it goes through the entire structure of the project file and removes any unreferenced items. If you're not interested in any particular tasks, you could remove your Dashboard data from your project. Any issues found are stored in the site map, so you shouldn't lose any previously discovered issues.

exploresecurity | Last updated: May 03, 2024 04:53PM UTC

Hi Hannah Thanks for the reply. There's still the open question of which places you have to delete a request from before it becomes completely dereferenced and then subject to removal on project > save copy. The assessment I was on finished so I made a concerted effort to reduce the project file from the 1.8GB it ended up as. I tried a wholesale delete of one type of request from Proxy History (over 4000) and saved a copy of the project. The file size was reduced - yay, I thought - but all subsequent delete-and-save-copy operations failed to reduce it further. So I did a save-copy on the original file without any deletes - and it was reduced to the size of my first attempt. So none of my deletes actually did anything, there was some redundancy in the project anyway. I then tried deleting requests from proxy history AND site map, and saving a project copy - which made more of a difference. But there's definitely some buggy behaviour going on as subsequent delete-and-save-copy ops made no difference. I just can't pin it down and it's taken too much time already. I think it's certainly something that could be clearer e.g. you delete one or more items, and a prompt could ask whether you want to delete it from the project entirely. A 'yes' could remove all references but warn you that a project save copy is needed to see a change in file size.

Hannah, PortSwigger Agent | Last updated: May 07, 2024 03:54PM UTC

With regard to fine-tuning your scope rules in more detail, we have an open feature request to use a Bambda (custom Java code) to define your scope. We think this would fit your enhanced scope requirement well, so we've added your +1 to this feature request. We're currently still monitoring the popularity of this functionality to help us prioritize this work in the future. In terms of locations where a request/response might be referenced, these can be across your site map, in your proxy history, and within issues/issue evidence, among other places. Depending on the length of the engagement, this may be a reasonable file size for the amount of data that you wish to keep. If there's any specific tools you are not interested in keeping the data from, excluding a full tool may help reduce the file size. If your project file does not contain sensitive data, and you think that there is some buggy behavior around this, please drop us an email at support@portswigger.net with your diagnostics information (Help > Diagnostics) and a copy of your project file, and we can look into this in some more detail to see if there are any additional ways that we could reduce this file size.

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