40 points

No idea why folks still use stuff like this when there are open source alternatives like 7zip and Nana Zip.

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9 points

I use WinRAR (as a switch from 7-Zip) because it works well enough, is fast and stable and has good compression. For me, switching to another Windows archiver would have no merit.

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37 points

Is security not a merit?

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5 points

Honestly, this is like the first time I heard WinRAR has this big security vulnerability. But I am still planning to stay on WinRAR given its easy to use UI and unlimited free trial.

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2 points

It is. Coincidentally, security was one of the reasons to uninstall 7-Zip.

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7 points

Is WinRAR really faster, more stable, and has better compression than 7-Zip? I haven’t used WinRAR in probably over a decade at this point.

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2 points

It depends. The RAR5 format used by newer WinRAR versions (the “old” one is still supported just well) can have smaller archives than 7z, but the opposite is also true. Still, yes, WinRAR is in my experience faster and more stable.

(Note that “as small as possible” is not usually the most relevant point. The best compression is currently reached with the ZPAQ format, but using it with maximum compression settings is painfully slow.)

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10 points

In a report released today, researchers from Group-IB said they discovered the WinRAR zero-day being used to target cryptocurrency and stock trading forums, where the hackers pretended to be other enthusiasts sharing their trading strategies.

These forum posts contained links to specially crafted WinRAR ZIP or RAR archives that pretended to include the shared trading strategy, consisting of PDFs, text files, and images.

I see an “invest in bitcoin” and I immediately think caveat emptor.

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9 points

Thank heavens for Linux and 7zip.

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5 points

Gee, I wonder whether it’s possible to have zero-day exploits on Linux and 7-Zip.

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1 point

It is, but Linux has such a low desktop usage share that it wouldn’t really be considered as a target for hackers. I believe that hackers really only target Linux servers, not desktops.

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2 points

How would a hacker even notice the difference between a Linux server and.a Linux desktop? Those are the same thing.

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1 point

Barely anyone uses Linux, and among those who do, distros vary wildly enough between each other to the point of breaking viruses that it’s just not worth the effort to make viruses for them compared to Windows or Mac

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