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.
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.
I agree that 7zip is great (albeit based in Russia, so not something I'm sure I want to support at the moment), but consider for a moment that winrar licencing is primarily aimed at businesses (which is why they don't bother locking personal users out after the trial ends), and for that money you get a certain guarantee of functionality and stability over a long period of time.
There's absolutely no guarantees that 7zip will continue to be developed, or that it will retain it's current features and functionality - the developer can turn it into a Minesweeper clone if they feel like it, and there's nothing a business can do but keep using an outdated and thus potentially dangerous version that will eventually become unusable.
You also get a certain level of customer service and corporate communication between the purchasing company and the production company to help resolve issues, which may not exist at all with the alternative.
It's also not always wise to have your business rely heavily on a tool that only sees development through volunteer work by a limited number of disparate people that may come and go, and while I don't know how large the volunteer base is that works on 7zip (it could be just the one guy, it could be a hundred people), to a company it'll never feel as reliable an option as relying on a tool that sees development and maintenance through a paid, full time staff at an established legal entity company with an established reputation.
And speaking for a moment to that established company bit, consider that winrar's company is based in Berlin, within the European Union and under it's rules and laws, which is a far better proposition from a company's standpoint than having to legally deal with an individual guy inside the Russian Federation, especially one that hasn't actually sold your business a product at all.
Anyway, just a few potential thoughts for why tools that do the same job might be preferred by a business, sorry it got a bit long 😅
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.
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.
if you’re on Windows use NanaZip. 7Zip refuses to use modern compression and encryption algorithms or integrate with the new Windows APIs. NanaZip is a fork that does just that.
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.
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
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
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.
Which part of the world is this, if you don't mind me asking? (just genuinely curious, cause I haven't come across any WinRARs in the wild here in NZ, most folks I know use either 7-Zip or PeaZip).
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
I used it last time around... 15 years ago to apply VKP patches on my Sony Ericsson phones :P like making my K750i into a 'W750i' with W800i software, adding GFX and Acoustic patches...
On a very very rare occasion I've had to use it for scene cracks as other apps didn't work. They use WinRAR to archive it so on those very rare occasions it's the only thing that unpacks it
I bought a lifetime license literally more than 20 years ago to support the developer. I use 7Zip for most stuff but prefer WinRAR for split rar archive support.
I used winrar at first, but never truly trusted 7zip. Didn't like the way it looked. Then first time I learned about ninite, I saw peazip and never looked back.
With the soon to be supported .rar on windows 11 I might do away with it but I feel peazip works faster.