A high-severity vulnerability has been fixed in WinRAR, the popular file archiver utility for Windows used by millions, that can execute commands on a computer simply by opening an archive.
    • NateNate60@lemmy.mlEnglish
      302·
      1 year ago

      I never understood the appeal of paid programs. 7-Zip works equally well and is free and open source software. It integrates much nicer into File Explorer as well.

      • narc0tic_bird@lemm.eeEnglish
        81·
        1 year ago

        I like WinRAR for its built-in parity functionality. You can achieve similar results with 7-Zip using PAR2, but having it built right into WinRAR with two options (add a recovery record to each archive, or create separate recovery archives (basically what PAR2 does)) is so much more convenient.

        WinRAR is like what…? 30-35 bucks? That’s per user, unlimited machines, lifetime license. More than fair I’d say.

      • Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.comEnglish
        01·
        1 year ago

        WinRar decompresses directly to destination. All other I have tried does it to like c:/tmp (can probably change that though) then copy it over, which is impractical or even impossible with really large files.

        That’s about it though IMO.

        • pijon@lemdro.idEnglish
          11·
          1 year ago

          You can decompress directly to the destination with 7zip as well. You just need to use the “extract” button instead of doing a drag and drop.

      • TheMadnessKing@lemdro.idEnglish
        12·
        1 year ago

        WinRAR has so much better UI than 7zip.

        I will honestly move away from WinRAR if something better with dark theme is launched.

  • 790@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    251·
    1 year ago

    Interesting. About a month ago I joined the elite club of WinRAR licence owners.

    • brsrklf@compuverse.ukEnglish
      15·
      1 year ago

      Somehow Windows has always been and is still crap at managing archives. Ultra-slow, has trouble opening or extracting individual files inside the archive, etc.

      However, 7-zip has been doing all that perfectly forever now. Not sure why anyone would use WinRAR, paid for or not.

      • XTornado@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Yeah maybe isn’t great but I admit that be able to use the open file window from a program and select a file inside a compressed file is nice.

      • TORFdot0@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        WinRAR is an internet institution at this point. It’s like Amtrak, why would anyone ride the train when there are better cheaper and faster modes of transport? Don’t know but people do anyway

        • LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.chEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          What? Amtrak is great for specific use cases. For intrastate travel in the US, Amtrak often is the fastest, cheapest, most comfortable experience.

          Oddly, going two states over, it’s often the slowest and most expensive, but for mid haul distance, Amtrak is fantastic.

      • kautau@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        Even 7Zip now though is insecure and outdated. Use NanaZip if you’re on windows, it’s a fork that is more secure and uses modern compression/encryption algorithms in addition to integrating better with current Windows APIs

        https://github.com/M2Team/NanaZip

  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nzEnglish
    41·
    1 year ago

    However, from a practical perspective, deceiving users into performing the required action shouldn’t be overly challenging, and given the vast size of WinRAR’s user base

    Excuse me, but “vast” size of WinRAR’s user base? I didn’t know WinRAR even had any users left.

    • Mr. w00t@lemy.lolEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Well, even FAR manager which they’ve open-souced long time ago is still maintained 😀 Good thing they didn’t discover this bug in 2000s!

      • kuneho@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Ah, FAR manager.

        I used it last time around… 15 years ago to apply VKP patches on my Sony Ericsson phones :P

      • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nzEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        That looks quite interesting, seems like they’ve even got quite an extensive list of plugins - looks like may be even better than Midnight Commander. :o