Introducing UWU, the Uncomplicated Web Uploader

On occasion it's been useful to transfer files to/from colleagues at different organizations. But when they want to send me something, doing so securely (i.e., not via email) can be a bit of a chore. I've found solutions tend to require too much technical setup for the sender (e.g., key-based SFTP), need too much on-going management at the server (e.g., user-based SFTP), or are part of a much heavier integrated solution (e.g., a fully-fledged personal cloud suite). I just wanted a minimal CGI script that I can run on something as basic as my Raspberry PI. So I made UWU.

UWU, the Uncomplicated Web Uploader, is a simple portal for uploading files to a server through a web browser. It's loosely inspired by woof, and while that tool does have an upload mode, it can't be set up to run on an HTTPS-secured server. UWU can. In addition, a standalone server for private/trusted networks can be run, without any prerequisites other than Python 3.

UWU provides separate “spaces” which a user can upload to, each with enforced file size and count quotas. By design, UWU does not support viewing the existing contents of spaces (neither the list of files nor their respective contents). In a sense, a transfer is “one way only”.

If you have a secured web site and you need a way for someone to send you a file, more secure than email and with minimal requirements on both sides, this might be useful to you.

This post marks the v1.0 and first public release. Hooray! More documentation can be found along with the source, which you can download here, or you can clone the git repository for the latest development version here.


Comment to add? Send me a message: <brendon@quantumfurball.net>

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