Guides & articles
Three long-form explainers about the ZIP format: how compression actually works, how archives are used to attack the programs that open them, and a short checklist for the archive sitting in your downloads folder right now.
How ZIP compression works: DEFLATE explained
What is actually inside a .zip, how DEFLATE finds repetition, why a folder of JPEGs barely shrinks, and what ZIP64 and the encryption schemes change.
6 min read
Zip Slip, zip bombs and malicious archives
An archive entry is not a file — it is an instruction a program chooses to follow. How that gets abused, from path traversal to 42.zip, and the defences.
6 min read
Inspect an archive before you extract it
Seven things to check between receiving a .zip and double-clicking it: who sent it, what the listing says, and when to open it somewhere disposable.
5 min read