extractify.zip: Extract and Explore compressed files online and securely (github.com)

submitted 1 month ago by sag@lemm.ee to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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Extractify.zip is open source progressive web app (PWA) website to view and extract zip files online without downloading them (client side). It is a free and open source project.

Website: https://extractify.zip/

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[-] aebletrae@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago

I'm confused. How are you defining "download" and "online" here?

The website suggests that the server holds the files and does the extraction:

Extract and Explore compressed files online [emphasis mine]

which fits with the github claim of:

to view and extract zip files online without downloading them

but the website also states that:

nothing leave your browser

which suggests that the server has nothing to do with it, and you do actually download the zip files first.

What am I missing?

[-] Markaos@lemmy.one 5 points 1 month ago

I have no clue what's meant by "without download", but this app just uses web assembly to inspect the archive in the browser. The sandbox they talk about most likely refers to the browser sandboxing.

So it pretty much boils down to "risking running malicious code is fine, because this app as a whole is treated as malicious by the browser".

[-] aebletrae@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, that's what I was suspecting.

I ended up leaning towards "download" being used in the boomer way of meaning any data transfer, whatever the direction, which in this case would more specifically be called an "upload". And that "online" was being used to mean "using a website", even though the local processing is offline.

The alternative fit to the description I had considered was a website you could give an URL, so it retrieves the zip file and allows you to inspect it remotely, and maybe just download some of the contained files, so it deals with the risk and bandwidth issues for you. That would be a different kind of useful, though it'd only be a few days before someone uses it for malign purposes and gets the site operator a no-knock visit from the fuzz, so that seemed much less likely.

I can see a use for an app that can be used where they can't be installed, though.