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David Oneill
Asked: 2010-12-16 12:37:10 +0800 CST

Create encrypted (password protected) zip file

  • 772

How do I create an encrypted (password protected) zip file?

encryption zip

8 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    This will prompt for a password:

    zip --encrypt file.zip files

    This is more insecure, as the password is entered/shown as plain text:

    zip --password (password) file.zip files

    Warning, the standard zip encryption is very weak and is easily cracked.
    Note, Use -r to zip directory and subdirectory recursively.

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  2. Starting from Ubuntu 17.10, right-clicking and selecting "Compress" no longer has "Other Options" listed.

    To resolve this, open "Archive Manager" and then drag & drop the files/folders from your File Manager into it and it will appear.

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  3. You can also right-click on a folder or file(s) in Nautilus and select "Compress...". In the resulting window, you can expand the "Other Options" section to enter a password.

    alt text

    If the password field or any of the other options are not enabled, then the selected compression option does not support it. Select a different one from the list after the filename. According to the documentation:

    Currently, only 7-Zip, ZIP, RAR and ARJ archives support encryption

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  4. Comments and answers have mentioned the default zip encryption is weak, but since there is no code example, here is on with .7zip:

    sudo apt-get install p7zip-full  # install 7zip
7za a -tzip -p -mem=AES256 foo_file.zip foo_folder  # encrypt folder

    Commands explained:

    • 7za: Use 7zip
    • a: Append? / Adding files? (e for extraction)
    • -tzip: Use .zip format instead of default .7z
    • -mem=AES256: Use AES256 encryption
    • foo_file.zip: Name of .zip file
    • foo_folder: Name of folder to encrypt

    Answer based on: https://www.tecmint.com/7zip-command-examples-in-linux/

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  5. sudo apt-get install zip
zip -r --encrypt result.zip folder
    1. Install zip
    2. Use -r to zip directory and subdirectory

    3. Use --encrypt to secure your files

      with a simple password-based symmetric encryption system, which is documented in the ZIP specification

      Wikipedia

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  6. Encrypt

    gpg -c your.zip

    creates your.zip.gpg

    Decrypt:

    gpg your.zip.gpg

    To turn off password caching

    More details including directories.

    https://superuser.com/a/249516/27275

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  7. with bsdtar

    Encrypt a_file, creating the encrypted archive encrypted.zip (you'll be prompted for a password):

    bsdtar --options zip:encryption -acf encrypted.zip a_file

    Decrypt and extract the file from the encrypted archive:

    bsdtar -xf encrypted.zip

    The -a option when creating the archive makes bsdtar choose the archive format and its compression using the ending of the archive, .zip. If you don't add -a, you'll get this error message:

    bsdtar: Unknown module name: `zip'

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  8. The metadata (filenames) of an encrypted zip can be read with unzip -l

    https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/186878/can-the-content-of-a-password-protected-zip-file-be-known

    The solution, as described in that link is to double-zip it but it is really not elegant.

    Also, some email providers block that kind of attachment, gmail for example.

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