4 ms·

FYI, password protected zip is completely insecure. Use age, or magic wormhole.

by wolf550e 7y ago

tinus_hn 7y ago
There are modern versions that are not completely insecure.
- frandroid 7y ago
  Either they are secure, or they are not.
- lvh 7y ago
  That’s true, but they’re not widely supported, so you can’t count on them to communicate. It’s also really hard to know for laypeople if the result is safe or not, so it’s dangerous to train them to accept encrypted ZIPs. Plus, as long as you don’t care about compatibility, you’re probably better off with encrypted disk images (DMGs or LUKS), because they don’t have completely dominant unsafe implementations.
  - zaarn 7y ago
    The filesystem drivers in most linux distro's (and I'd argue Mac and Windows too) have never been under scrutiny for security bugs. I wouldn't trust an ext4 image I got from the internet unless it was signed and from a trusted source, that's worse than ZIP files.
    - namibj 7y ago
      What about a bare tar ball though?
      - zaarn 7y ago
        Acceptable but tar's have their own set of issues (mostly efficiency and being tape oriented)
- parliament32 7y ago
  You're not guaranteed compatibility. If you use AES to encrypt (using 7zip or whatever), the recipient won't be able to open it with Windows Explorer: https://superuser.com/questions/1255917/do-windows-8-1-or-10-support-aes-256-in-zip-files https://superuser.com/questions/1255917/do-windows-8-1-or-10...
melicerte 7y ago
Could you elaborate or provide some link to your first claim? I'm really interested to know more. Thanks!
- wolf550e 7y ago
  There are multiple ways to password protect zip files. A user usually won't be able to tell whether the way used by their software is secure or not. The old way is insecure. http://math.ucr.edu/~mike/zipattacks.pdf http://math.ucr.edu/~mike/zipattacks.pdf https://github.com/hyc/fcrackzip https://github.com/hyc/fcrackzip The modern format uses PBKDF2 like many password hashing formats and needs to be attacked with john the ripper or hashcat.
- parliament32 7y ago
  Specifically ZipCrypto is bad, which is the only supported crypto if you're password-protecting in Windows Explorer and the like. If you use 7zip or similar software you can use AES instead, which is fine. http://math.ucr.edu/~mike/zipattacks.pdf http://math.ucr.edu/~mike/zipattacks.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format)#Encryption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format)#Encryption

FYI, password protected zip is completely insecure. Use age, or magic wormhole.

tinus_hn 7y ago

There are modern versions that are not completely insecure.

frandroid 7y ago
Either they are secure, or they are not.
lvh 7y ago
That’s true, but they’re not widely supported, so you can’t count on them to communicate. It’s also really hard to know for laypeople if the result is safe or not, so it’s dangerous to train them to accept encrypted ZIPs. Plus, as long as you don’t care about compatibility, you’re probably better off with encrypted disk images (DMGs or LUKS), because they don’t have completely dominant unsafe implementations.
- zaarn 7y ago
  The filesystem drivers in most linux distro's (and I'd argue Mac and Windows too) have never been under scrutiny for security bugs. I wouldn't trust an ext4 image I got from the internet unless it was signed and from a trusted source, that's worse than ZIP files.
  - namibj 7y ago
    What about a bare tar ball though?
    - zaarn 7y ago
      Acceptable but tar's have their own set of issues (mostly efficiency and being tape oriented)
parliament32 7y ago
You're not guaranteed compatibility. If you use AES to encrypt (using 7zip or whatever), the recipient won't be able to open it with Windows Explorer: https://superuser.com/questions/1255917/do-windows-8-1-or-10-support-aes-256-in-zip-files https://superuser.com/questions/1255917/do-windows-8-1-or-10...

melicerte 7y ago

Could you elaborate or provide some link to your first claim? I'm really interested to know more. Thanks!

wolf550e 7y ago
There are multiple ways to password protect zip files. A user usually won't be able to tell whether the way used by their software is secure or not. The old way is insecure. http://math.ucr.edu/~mike/zipattacks.pdf http://math.ucr.edu/~mike/zipattacks.pdf https://github.com/hyc/fcrackzip https://github.com/hyc/fcrackzip The modern format uses PBKDF2 like many password hashing formats and needs to be attacked with john the ripper or hashcat.
parliament32 7y ago
Specifically ZipCrypto is bad, which is the only supported crypto if you're password-protecting in Windows Explorer and the like. If you use 7zip or similar software you can use AES instead, which is fine. http://math.ucr.edu/~mike/zipattacks.pdf http://math.ucr.edu/~mike/zipattacks.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format)#Encryption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format)#Encryption