Various embodiments of a system and method for securely caching and sharing image data. A process can generate image data and store the image data into the protected cache using a UUID that is cryptographically derived from the image data. Any process with access to the UUID may retrieve the image data. Because the UUID is uniquely derived from the actual data of the generated file, a process will only be able to retrieve image data that could have been generated by a process associated with the user account, or from a process associated with a user account that could have generated the image data, or that otherwise has a record of the image data.