A newly disclosed vulnerability called "Zombie ZIP" allows malware to bypass detection by the vast majority of antivirus programs. The exploit works by creating a corrupted ZIP file that falsely declares its contents as uncompressed, causing security software to scan inert data while missing the actual compressed malware payload.
This simple technique is reportedly evading 95% of common antivirus suites, as the malicious archive appears as random, non-threatening data. While standard extraction tools fail to open these corrupted files, a small custom program can easily unpack the hidden malware.
The vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2026-0866, and security advisories have been issued. System administrators are advised to be cautious with ZIP files until antivirus solutions are updated to address this flaw.
Main topics: Zombie ZIP vulnerability, antivirus bypass technique, cybersecurity threat, vulnerability disclosure and response.