A zip bomb is a relatively small file that, when decompressed, expands into an impossibly large amount of data—often petabytes ( terabytes) or exabytes ( petabytes).
: While various versions exist, "66.zip" is frequently cited in cybersecurity discussions as a classic example of this denial-of-service (DoS) attack method. 66.zip
Fills the hard drive completely, causing applications to crash or the OS to fail. A zip bomb is a relatively small file
Modern systems and security software have evolved to identify these "bombs" before they are opened: Modern systems and security software have evolved to
: They are often used to disable antivirus software by forcing it to scan an "infinite" amount of data, allowing other malware to slip through undetected. Technical Risks Risk Factor Impact on System Storage Exhaustion
The decompression process consumes 100% of processing power, freezing the system.