7-Zip version 26.02 was released to fix a remote code execution vulnerability that could allow attackers to execute malicious code by convincing users to open specially crafted compressed files.
The vulnerability, disclosed by Lunbun researcher Landon Peng, exists in 7-Zip’s processing of XZ-compressed data.
According to an advisory from the Zero Day Initiative, specially crafted XZ data can trigger a heap-based buffer overflow, potentially allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code as the user.
While the developer has not published technical details about the flaw, the changes in the 26.02 source code suggest it is related to how 7-Zip tracks available space while decompressing XZ data.
The patch adds checks to ensure the decoder cannot write beyond the remaining available space in an output buffer, helping prevent a heap-based buffer overflow.
The advisory states that exploitation requires user interaction, such as visiting a malicious page or opening a malicious archive file.
No automatic update feature
As 7-Zip does not include an automatic update feature, users will not receive the security fix automatically. Instead, they must install it manually by downloading the latest version from the program’s official site, 7-zip.org.
Because 7-Zip is one of the most widely used archive utilities on Windows, security flaws impacting its archive features are an attractive target to threat actors.
A phishing campaign or social engineering attack could be used to distribute a malicious archive that exploits the flaw to install malware on vulnerable systems.
This is not far-fetched, as archive vulnerabilities, including those in 7-Zip, have been exploited in past attacks.
In early 2025, a 7-Zip vulnerability that allowed malware to bypass Windows’ Mark of the Web (MotW) security feature was exploited by Russian hackers as a zero-day.
Later that same year, a Russian hacking group exploited a WinRAR vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-8088 via phishing attacks to install the RomCom malware.
There are currently no reports that attackers are actively exploiting this newly disclosed 7-Zip vulnerability.
However, users are advised to update to version 26.02 as soon as possible to reduce the risk of future attacks.
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