redactor

A PDF redaction library and CLI tool with secure text removal using MuPDF. Redacts Verizon bills so you can expense them without leaking your call metadata.

Use Case

Originally built for redacting Verizon phone bills before submitting them to employer expense reimbursement systems like Concur, or Expensify.

When submitting phone bills for work expense reimbursement, you typically need to:

✅ Keep the billing amounts visible (for verification)
❌ Remove your account number (privacy/security)
❌ Remove personal phone numbers (privacy)
❌ Remove call detail information (times, locations, destinations)
❌ Remove other personal contact information

This tool ensures your sensitive information is physically removed from the PDF (not just blacked out), so it cannot be extracted by the expense system or anyone who views the document.

Perfect for: Freelancers, remote workers, and employees who need to submit redacted bills for work expenses while maintaining privacy.

Features

Secure Redaction: Physically removes text from PDFs (not just visual overlay)
Type3 Font Support: Handles complex PDF encodings via MuPDF
Phone Number Detection: Automatic NANP phone number redaction
Verizon Account Numbers: Specialized detection for 9-5 format accounts
Call Detail Redaction: Automatically redacts time, origination, and destination columns
Pattern Matching: Literal strings and regex patterns
CLI & Library: Use as a command-line tool or Rust library

Installation

As a CLI Tool

cargo install redactor

As a Library

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
redactor = "0.2"

Quick Start

CLI Usage

Redact Verizon Bill for Expense Report

# Redact account number, phone numbers, and call details (recommended for expense reports)
redactor --input verizon-bill.pdf --output for-concur.pdf --verizon

This command will:

Find and remove your Verizon account number (e.g., 123456789-00001)
Remove all phone numbers from the document
Remove call detail information (times like "10:26 PM", locations, destinations)
Preserve billing amounts and other expense-relevant information

Other Common Uses

# Redact only phone numbers
redactor --input document.pdf --output redacted.pdf --phones

# Redact custom patterns (e.g., email addresses)
redactor --input doc.pdf --output out.pdf --pattern "your.email@example.com"

# Extract text to verify what's in the PDF
redactor extract --input document.pdf --output text.txt

Library Usage

use redactor::{RedactionService, RedactionTarget};
use std::path::Path;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let service = RedactionService::with_secure_strategy();
    
    service.redact(
        Path::new("input.pdf"),
        Path::new("output.pdf"),
        &[RedactionTarget::PhoneNumbers]
    )?;
    
    Ok(())
}

Security

This library uses MuPDF's built-in redaction system to physically remove text from PDFs, making it unextractable. This is more secure than visual-only redaction methods that just draw black boxes over text.

Why This Matters for Expense Reports

Many expense systems (Concur, Expensify, etc.) can extract text from PDFs for automated processing. Simple "black box" redaction doesn't actually remove the text - it's still embedded in the PDF and can be extracted. This tool ensures your account numbers and personal phone numbers are truly gone before you submit to your employer.

Verification

# After redaction, verify text is gone
redactor extract --input redacted.pdf
# Your account number and phone numbers should NOT appear in output

Supported Patterns

Phone Numbers (NANP)

(555) 123-4567
555-987-6543
555.111.2222
+1 555 234 5678

Verizon Accounts

123456789-00001 (9-5 format)
12345678900001 (14 digits)
Context-aware detection

Custom Patterns

Literal strings
Regular expressions
Multiple patterns per run

Command Reference

Default Mode: Redaction

redactor [OPTIONS] --input <FILE> --output <FILE>

Options:
  -i, --input <FILE>       Input PDF file
  -o, --output <FILE>      Output PDF file
  -p, --pattern <TEXT>     Pattern to redact (repeatable)
      --phones             Redact phone numbers
      --verizon            Redact Verizon account + phones + call details
      --all                Redact all text
  -v, --verbose            Verbose output

Extract Subcommand

redactor extract --input <FILE> [--output <FILE>]

Options:
  -i, --input <FILE>       Input PDF file
  -o, --output <FILE>      Output text file (stdout if omitted)

Examples

Expense Report Workflow

# 1. Download your Verizon bill (e.g., January-2026.pdf)
# 2. Redact sensitive information
redactor --input January-2026.pdf --output January-2026-redacted.pdf --verizon

# 3. (Optional) Verify redaction by extracting text
redactor extract --input January-2026-redacted.pdf
# Your account number and phone numbers should NOT appear in the output

# 4. Upload January-2026-redacted.pdf to Concur/Expensify

Redact Multiple Pattern Types

redactor \
  --input sensitive.pdf \
  --output clean.pdf \
  --phones \
  --pattern "SSN: [0-9-]+" \
  --pattern "CONFIDENTIAL"

Library: Custom Redaction Strategy

use redactor::{RedactionService, RedactionTarget, SecureRedactionStrategy};

let service = RedactionService::new(
    SecureRedactionStrategy::new()
        .with_verbose(true)
        .with_max_hits(500)
);

service.redact(input, output, &targets)?;

Library: Pattern Matching

use redactor::domain::{PhoneNumberMatcher, PatternMatcher};

let matcher = PhoneNumberMatcher::new();
let phones = matcher.extract_all("Call (555) 234-5678 or 555-987-6543");
// phones: ["(555) 234-5678", "555-987-6543"]

Performance

Unit tests: <0.1s (15+ tests)
Integration tests: ~0.5s (10+ tests)
Full test suite: <2s (30+ tests)
Redaction: ~50-80ms per page (typical)

Architecture

redactor/
├── src/
│   ├── domain/          # Business logic (phone, account detection)
│   ├── redaction/       # Redaction strategies (secure, visual)
│   ├── error.rs         # Custom error types
│   ├── lib.rs           # Library API
│   └── main.rs          # CLI application
└── tests/
    ├── common/          # Shared test utilities
    ├── unit/            # Fast unit tests
    ├── integration_test.rs
    └── cli_integration_test.rs

Development

Prerequisites

Rust 1.70+
MuPDF development libraries

Building

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/redactor
cd redactor
cargo build --release

Testing

# All tests
cargo test

# Specific test suite
cargo test --test integration_test

# With output
cargo test -- --nocapture

Linting

cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features
cargo fmt --check

Limitations

Requires MuPDF system libraries
Best results with standard PDF fonts
Complex annotations may require additional handling
Scanned PDFs (images) require OCR preprocessing

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please:

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch
Add tests for new functionality
Ensure all tests pass
Submit a pull request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE-MIT for details.

Acknowledgments

MuPDF for PDF processing
lopdf for PDF manipulation
pdf-extract for text extraction

Security Notice

This tool is designed for legitimate redaction purposes. Users are responsible for:

Verifying redaction completeness
Complying with applicable laws and regulations
Testing output before distribution
Understanding PDF structure limitations

Always verify redacted PDFs before sharing sensitive documents.

redactor 0.2.1