7-Zip, a free and open-source file archiver finally added an assist for Mark-of-the-Internet windows security characteristic, extending higher protection from hostile downloaded information. 7-Zip file archiving program is one of the most popular in the world, although until now, it did not have support for Mark-of-the-Web.
The feature was demanded for a long time
When an archive was downloaded from the Internet and extracted with 7-zip, the Mark-of-the-Web file would not be generated. This causes Windows not to treat those files as dangerous. Because of this, Microsoft Office would not open the file in Protected View. For several years, many developers, engineers, and security advisers have demanded the file archiver 7-Zip build a safety feature for its archiving service.
It's very important in Windows security I'd say, Kinda shocked so few archivers maintain it.
It's what makes Office block downloaded documents as untrustworthy, and it's kinda useless if malware simply zip the files and then get the user to extract them (removing the MOTW).
— arnastia (@arnastia) May 2, 2022
Even though 7-Zip developer Igor Pavlov once said he did not want to support the feature as it needed extra overhead to the program, all this changed last week after the company added a new feature in 7-zip 22.00 which enables to generate MoTW flows.
Windows will now remind you whether to run downloaded files and Microsoft Office will open documents in Protected View.