JapanPlease read through the following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for answers to common questions. FAQs are updated on a regular basis so you can return often, if needed.
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1. I forgot the password for my .zip file(s). What do I do?
Your files are only as secure as your password, but that can be a problem sometimes. It is important to make your passphrase easy for you to remember, but hard for anyone else to guess. PKZIP/SecureZIP does not store an archive's passphrase anywhere but inside the file. PKWARE has no special means for “getting around” the encryption and is not able to assist in the recovery of an encrypted file.
2. Why am I asked for a password when I am using my digital certificate to sign or decrypt my .zip file(s).
There are several reasons you may be asked to enter a password even though you are using a digital certificate. One reason is that your digital certificate may be protected with “two-factor” authentication. One form of “two-factor” authentication uses a password you define to control use of your certificate. This means that in order to use your certificates private key for signing or decrypting, software applications such as PKZIP/SecureZIP can only use it if you grant access to your private key. Providing your password when prompted grants PKZIP/SecureZIP access to use your private key. If you are using a password to protect the private key for your digital certificate, make sure you remember this password just as you would if you were using a password to encrypt a .zip file without a digital certificate.
Another reason you may be asked for a password is that your private key is not available. To open a .zip file using your digital certificate, your private key must be available on the machine where you are working.
3. I need to replace or repair my computer that is running PKZIP/SecureZIP. How do I make sure I can still open .zip files I have encrypted using my digital certificate?
Your digital certificate resides on the computer where you use it to encrypt and decrypt your .zip files. To ensure you are able to use your certificate after replacing or repairing your computer, you must make sure you have a protected backup of your digital certificate, including your certificate’s private key. On UNIX and Linux make sure you include your “certificates.db” files with your routine system backup steps. On Windows make sure you backup your Windows Certificate Store that is maintained within the Windows registry.
4. Can I sign archives with a digital certificate located on a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server?
No. Both the certificate and private key must be installed to your local system.
5. Can I encrypt archives with a digital certificate located on a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server?
Can I encrypt archives with a digital certificate located on a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server?
Only SecureZIP Enterprise supports using LDAP digital certificates to encrypt archives. See "Accessing Recipients in an LDAP Directory" in Chapter 3 of the Users Manual for more information.
6. Can I install PKZIP/SecureZIP anywhere, for example on a mounted file system over the network?
Yes. However, we recommend you review the terms of your End User License Agreement for an understanding of how the software may be used.
7. Does PKZIP/SecureZIP run on my favorite UNIX®?
PKZIP/SecureZIP is supported only on Solaris 8.0 and later, HP-UX 11i and later, AIX 5.2 or later. The Solaris version will only run on UltraSPARC processors. The HP-UX version will run on PA-RISC or Itanium processors. No other UNIX operating systems or hardware platforms are supported at this time. Specifically, PKZIP/SecureZIP is not available for Solaris for x86, SCO UNIX, UNIXWare, Tru64 or NCR UNIX.
8. Does PKZIP/SecureZIP run on my favorite Linux?
PKZIP/SecureZIP is supported on RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 or above and SUSE Enterprise Linux 9 or above. The Linux version will only run on x86 processors.
9. Does PKZIP/SecureZIP run on my favorite Windows® Server?
PKZIP/SecureZIP is supported on Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit), Windows 2008 Server (32- and 64-bit), Windows 2003 Server (32- and 64 bit) and Windows 2000 Server w/SP4.
10. What file formats can PKZIP/SecureZIP extract?
ZIP (including files with the .zipx extension), TAR, Gzip, Bzip2, JAR (Java Archive), UUencode, XXencode, BinHex, ARJ, Z, and LHA/LZH. On Windows, CAB and RAR files can also be extracted. PKZIP/SecureZIP provides the same interface for extracting from all of these archive types.
11. What file formats can PKZIP/SecureZIP create?
ZIP, TAR, Gzip, Bzip, UUencode, and XXencode.
12. When I try to run PKZIP/SecureZIP from a script or in the background, it hangs and never finishes. Why?
PKZIP/SecureZIP tries to change the settings of your terminal. When it runs in the background, PKZIP is not able to change the settings, and waits until it can. Using the -silent option will change that behavior, as well as suppress all output. Please read Appendix E of the User’s Manual, for more hints and tips on running PKZIP/SecureZIP in the background or from a script.
13. If I'm using the -silent option, how do I know if there were any problems creating the .ZIP file?
PKZIP/SecureZIP returns a value to the shell to indicate error status. On UNIX or Linux, one normally checks this by checking the value of $? immediately after running the command. If $? is 0, then everything was all right. On Windows, one checks the “errorlevel”. If the errorlevel is set to 0, then everything was all right. Please read Appendix B of the User’s Manual for more information.
14. When does PKZIP/SecureZIP Server create temporary files? Can someone who accesses my temporary file read my data?
There are several operations for which PKZIP/SecureZIP creates temporary files.
- Updating an archive: When you update an archive, PKZIP/SecureZIP first creates and updates a temporary copy of the archive. When the update is completed, the original archive is replaced with the updated copy. Data in the temporary file is encrypted if it was encrypted in the archive you are updating. Similarly with new or updated files for the archive: they are encrypted in the temporary file if they are to be encrypted in the updated archive.
- Creating a spanned archive: A temporary file is created to span an archive in segments across multiple discs or other media. Data in the temporary file is encrypted if it is to be encrypted in the final archive.
- Extracting an embedded archive: An archive can be embedded in another archive. For example, a ZIP file can contain another ZIP file, or a GZIP archive can contain a TAR archive. The embedded option can be used to extract the files in an embedded archive file directly instead of first extracting the embedded archive itself. In this case, the embedded archive is extracted into a temporary file before its files are extracted. Data in the temporary file is encrypted if it was encrypted in the archive.
- Creating streamed archives: When you write an archive to a data stream—for example, to STDOUT (see chapter 3 of the Users Manual for the Server or Command Line products—PKZIP compresses and (if encryption is specified) encrypts the data before writing it to the temporary file. The temporary file is needed to get size information for local headers, which are written out before file data. But the data is already compressed and encrypted when it’s placed in the temporary file; it never appears on disk unencrypted.