Skip to main content

SAFE Viewer

The SAFE Viewer is a standalone application developed by ReversingLabs for working with the SAFE report in the RL-SAFE archive format. The RL-SAFE archive contains the full SAFE report and all other supported report formats for a software package analyzed with Spectra Assure.

When you open the archive in the SAFE Viewer, it looks and behaves the same as a standalone report generated with the rl-secure report rl-html command, or the report you open directly on the Portal and share with others via Portal UI.

The SAFE Viewer is available for download to anyone and can be used without a Spectra Assure license or an Internet connection.

The Viewer is most suitable for the following use-cases:

  • Working with large reports that cannot be opened due to limited system resources or file size restrictions in place.
  • Auditing and storing reports as snapshots of software analysis at a specific point in time. Users can export the RL-SAFE archive for analyzed software versions, and preserve the results even if the versions are later removed from their Portal or CLI projects or reprocessed. Having these reports on hand at all times enables organizations to implement the audit process in ways they see fit.

With SAFE Viewer you can:

  • open the SAFE report generated in a portable archive format (.rl-safe) with rl-secure, with the Portal API, or exported from the Portal UI
  • open the SAFE report in a portable archive format (.rl-safe) shared with you
  • export certain parts of the report in their designated formats
Archives from unknown or unreliable sources

Even though the SAFE Viewer processes are sandboxed to minimize damage from potentially malicious code, do not open any RL-SAFE archives from unknown or unreliable sources.

Get SAFE Viewer​

The SAFE Viewer is a self-contained Electron application that supports the following operating systems:

For Windows, the Viewer is distributed only as an installation package, while for Linux, it's available both as an installation package and a ready-to-run portable executable.

Current version (13/02/2025)

Current version of the SAFE Viewer is 1.0.3.

Linux​

For Linux, you can download the latest version of the SAFE Viewer in any of the formats listed in the following table. SHA-256 checksums for installer packages are included in the table for integrity verification purposes.

FormatDownload linksSHA-256 checksum
AppImage (x64)Downloada2b8a1ebca94e3402ba4b4059540192c2a97b0be815821b0a4ff9ea44282be3a
AppImage (arm64) ExperimentalDownload100e573cbb1a763e5648b16efb80f4343dd0bdc933f0150d80837fd805bb82cf
DEB (x64)Download86340309760faf0b4cdf91dc5d8e83befd3eb8fb1eadf19857566a99e3394775
DEB (arm64) ExperimentalDownload82a95e46908f7cd241e1fc0720a49383c313da566b5db8e9ee7a6a582d37a83e
RPM (x64)Download4e959e94047216cfcefa1a70c4401ad1cc493345f4ece71b6b3a2d69a22ce718
RPM (arm64) ExperimentalDownloadf7dcfc0c2d3113a4978fe841d0235157b1ff50f8fef1575c1405a38933c807f7
SNAP (x64)Download9a443c0285990a9f853e2341d151a75234bc1a06aee81a0548b8975dd1ebc9df
info

Ubuntu 24 LTS is not supported. Due to some major changes that came with that version, some Electron applications do not work.

Windows​

For Windows, you can download the latest version of the SAFE Viewer in any of the formats listed in the following table. SHA-256 checksums for installer packages are included in the table for integrity verification purposes.

FormatDownload linksSHA-256 checksum
Windows Installer (x64)Downloadc1008e7d0d758d5c032b1d140719f038f2aad4a5784b6afa49b9ca50e91e503e
Windows Installer (arm64) ExperimentalDownload7a4002efb09379c46d7296258a79ec54d370c46c22a99360bc167b95e6610319

Who should use the SAFE Viewer?​

The SAFE Viewer is an ideal choice for users who:

  • do not have a Portal account or CLI license, but an RL-SAFE archive was shared with them and they want to view it
  • have a Portal account, but want to export the SAFE report from the Portal and view it offline
  • want to open RL-SAFE archives generated with the CLI or with the Portal API

Prerequisites​

Complete the following tasks before installing the SAFE Viewer:

  • Make sure you have the supported OS version. Check the Known issues section for more details.
  • Download the installation package or a portable executable from any of the sources above and save it somewhere on your system where you can easily access it.

Install SAFE Viewer​

In this step, you're going to install the SAFE Viewer.

Linux installation​

If you downloaded an AppImage, you first need to mark it as an executable. This is done in any of the following ways:

From the UI

  1. Locate the file.
  2. Right-click on the icon and select Properties > Executable as Program.
  3. After that, double-click on the icon to launch it.

From the Terminal

  1. Locate the file and run the following from the Terminal:
chmod a+x rl-safe-viewer-linux-x86_64.AppImage
  1. Next, launch the application: 
rl-safe-viewer

Windows installation​

  1. Locate the .exe file.
  2. Double-click on it and follow the installation instructions in the wizard that opens.

When to update the SAFE Viewer?​

The SAFE Viewer is backwards-compatible. This means that if you have the latest version of the Viewer, you can open RL-SAFE archives generated with older versions of Spectra Assure products.

However, this does not work the other way around. If you have an old version of the Viewer, but the archive you want to open was generated with the latest version of the CLI or Portal, an error will occur due to compatibility issues.

To make sure you can open all RL-SAFE archives, it is essential to always use the latest version of the SAFE Viewer.

The SAFE Viewer does not auto-update. Every time a new version is available, you need to download it to your machine. You can find your current version information in the lower left corner of the Viewer launch screen. To check if a new version is available, use the Help menu in the Viewer navbar.

Work with the SAFE report​

This guide includes the ReversingLabs transparency report.

To get started with the SAFE Viewer, you can download the example reports by clicking any of the following cards:

Report 1
Example report for Solr 8.10.0.
Report 2
Example report for UAParser.js 0.7.29.
Report 3
Example report for reproducible build artifact.

Open the SAFE report​

To open the SAFE report, first open the Viewer and drag and drop the RL-SAFE archive file into the designated spot.

If this is not your preferred method, use any of the following buttons:

  • Choose a File, in the middle of the drag-and-drop area
  • File > Open Report, from the menu located in the application navbar

Alternatively, you can double-click on the RL-SAFE archive file saved on your machine. This automatically opens both the Viewer and the report. If this does not work, manually set the file format association for the .rl-safe format on your system.

No matter how you open the report, the Viewer performs integrity verification before displaying the report contents. Usually, the verification process is done instantly, but may take a while for large reports.

The report opens automatically if the integrity verification passes. If it fails, an error message pops up and you cannot view the report contents. In case this happens, check whether you have the latest version of the SAFE Viewer.

When you open a report, it's added to the list of recently viewed reports and can be quickly accessed from there the next time you run the Viewer. You can have multiple reports open at the same time, but each one is displayed in its own application window.

Open a password-protected report​

The SAFE Viewer can open password-protected RL-SAFE archives.

To view a password-protected report, open its RL-SAFE archive and provide a password when prompted to decrypt the report contents. You can view the report only if you provide the correct password.

When sharing password-protected RL-SAFE archives with others, make sure to send them the correct password.

Export a part of the report​

If you want to save a certain part of the report in the desired format to your machine, you can do so either with the Export option in the navbar or directly from any report page available for export.

Only the following parts of the report can be exported from the SAFE Viewer:

  • SBOM, in either the CycloneDX or SPDX format
  • Issues, in the SARIF format
  • Vulnerabilities, in the RL-CVE format
  • Networking, in the RL-URI format

Differences in the SAFE reports between products​

Although the SAFE report looks and behaves consistently across all Spectra Assure products, some slight differences do exist:

1. Amount of diff versions per file

On the Portal Projects page, only a single diff can be created for each package version. This is due to the fact that for each package version you upload to the Projects page, you can choose only one predecessor (i.e., the older version it derived from).

On the other hand, the CLI allows you to create multiple diffs for each package version. In this case, multiple diff checks are listed in the Performed checks section of the report Summary page.

If your RL-SAFE archive was generated with the CLI and contains multiple diff reports, the SAFE Viewer allows you to switch between them from the Select Diff menu in the navbar.

2. Inclusion of the binary

In Portal Projects, it's possible to download the software package (binary file) directly from the report page. If this option is enabled when generating a share link for the report, every user that receives the report link can also download the binary.

On the other hand, the RL-SAFE archive does not include the binary of the analyzed package version - only its report. The binary of the package version cannot be exported from the SAFE Viewer app, no matter which Spectra Assure product the archive is generated with.

Known issues​

To offer you the best possible experience with the SAFE Viewer, this section contains a list of issues with the application we're aware of. If you run into an issue while using the Viewer, first check the following list:

  • Drag and drop works randomly for SAFE Report Viewer on Debian 12 ("Bookworm") version.