Saint ZippyReads, Who Stripped Files of the Mark of the Web

Patron of ZIP archives downloaded from strangers, the Mark of the Web, and people who open attachments without reading the warnings.

Life

In 2022 Will Dormann found that when extracting a file from a ZIP archive, Windows sometimes forgot to tag it with the Mark of the Web, the label meaning "this came from the Internet". Without that mark, documents and programs opened without the usual security warnings. The flaw was already being exploited in real attacks when, on 8 November 2022, Microsoft fixed it as CVE-2022-41091.

Prayer

O Saint ZippyReads, who strips the mark from what comes from outside, let our files always confess where they came from. Amen.

How to celebrate

Celebrated by installing the November 2022 Windows updates and distrusting every file extracted from a ZIP that arrived from who knows where.

No mark on the file, no ground for trust.