A tiny compressed file (often only a few kilobytes or megabytes in size) that expands into a gargantuan amount of data (petabytes, exabytes, or "infinite" space) upon extraction.
Modern antivirus software and archiving tools (like 7-Zip) often limit the number of nested levels they will scan or extract to avoid this type of attack. Infinite.zip
The ZIP algorithm can compress repetitive data (like a file filled entirely with zeros) extremely efficiently. A 10 GB file of zeros can be compressed into a few megabytes. A tiny compressed file (often only a few
Its primary purpose is to exhaust disk space (filling up the server's hard drive) or cause high CPU utilization, resulting in system failure. A 10 GB file of zeros can be compressed into a few megabytes
The most infamous example, 42.zip , is a 42-kilobyte file that, when fully extracted, expands to 4.5 petabytes (
When an antivirus scanner or user unzips the file, the decompression engine attempts to expand every layer, leading to an exponential increase in disk space usage. 3. Purpose and Impact
It is used to overwhelm security software that attempts to scan within archives, preventing it from detecting other, actual malicious files. 4. Mitigation and Defense