Tool to read hidden comments in Zip files, global comment or for each file, with CP437 or Unicode encoding
Zip Comments - dCode
Tag(s) : Informatics
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Zip Comments
Zip Comment Reader
Answers to Questions (FAQ)
What is a zip comment? (Definition)
A Zip file is used to archive various files by compression. Each file contained in the ZIP archive can be accompanied by a comment (text zone). Also the entire Zip file can contain a global comment.
How to extract the password of a Zip file?
How to decode a comment?
The comment can be stored with any encoding (no standard/standard), usually ASCII or Unicode.
Example: The comment 7A 69 70 (hexadecimal format) is encoded in ASCII and translates into the 3 letters: zip
dCode has a cipher detector that can help recognize different encodings.
NB: ZIP files are often encoded (file names, folder names, comments) with code page 437 (CP437) which was widespread before the advent of Unicode and UTF-8.
How does Zip comments reader work?
The tool checks if a global comment exists, and then generates the list of all the files before checking, one after the other, if it contains a comment and tries to decode it.
dCode uses the library of @gildas-lormeau available here (BSD-3 License)
Source code
dCode retains ownership of the "Zip Comments" source code. Any algorithm for the "Zip Comments" algorithm, applet or snippet or script (converter, solver, encryption / decryption, encoding / decoding, ciphering / deciphering, breaker, translator), or any "Zip Comments" functions (calculate, convert, solve, decrypt / encrypt, decipher / cipher, decode / encode, translate) written in any informatic language (Python, Java, PHP, C#, Javascript, Matlab, etc.) or any database download or API access for "Zip Comments" or any other element are not public (except explicit open source licence like Creative Commons). Same with the download for offline use on PC, mobile, tablet, iPhone or Android app.
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The content of the page "Zip Comments" and its results may be freely copied and reused, including for commercial purposes, provided that dCode.fr is cited as the source.
Exporting the results is free and can be done simply by clicking on the export icons ⤓ (.csv or .txt format) or ⧉ (copy and paste).
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In a scientific article or book, the recommended bibliographic citation is: Zip Comments on dCode.fr [online website], retrieved on 2025-04-16,
