How to Scan Files for Unsafe Zip Archives using PHP

Zip archives provide an extremely convenient way to upload or share multiple large documents at once, but they can also be used to facilitate DoS attacks and/or disguise files containing malware.

Identifying unsafe archives is a critical step in securing any file upload or sharing process. Using the code examples below, you can easily take advantage of a Virus Scanning API with full content verification policies against unsafe archives and a variety of other hidden threat types. By setting the $allow_unsafe_archives request parameter to “false,” you can automatically flag unsafe archive files and take steps to remove them from your workflow.

You can take advantage of this API for free, starting by installing the PHP SDK with Composer. Run the following command in your command line:

composer require cloudmersive/cloudmersive_virusscan_api_client

Next, copy the below ready-to-run code examples to structure your API call:

<?php
require_once(__DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php');

// Configure API key authorization: Apikey
$config = Swagger\Client\Configuration::getDefaultConfiguration()->setApiKey('Apikey', 'YOUR_API_KEY');



$apiInstance = new Swagger\Client\Api\ScanApi(
    
    
    new GuzzleHttp\Client(),
    $config
);
$input_file = "/path/to/inputfile"; // \SplFileObject | Input file to perform the operation on.
$allow_executables = true; // bool | Set to false to block executable files (program code) from being allowed in the input file.  Default is false (recommended).
$allow_invalid_files = true; // bool | Set to false to block invalid files, such as a PDF file that is not really a valid PDF file, or a Word Document that is not a valid Word Document.  Default is false (recommended).
$allow_scripts = true; // bool | Set to false to block script files, such as a PHP files, Python scripts, and other malicious content or security threats that can be embedded in the file.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended).
$allow_password_protected_files = true; // bool | Set to false to block password protected and encrypted files, such as encrypted zip and rar files, and other files that seek to circumvent scanning through passwords.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended).
$allow_macros = true; // bool | Set to false to block macros and other threats embedded in document files, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint embedded Macros, and other files that contain embedded content threats.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended).
$allow_xml_external_entities = true; // bool | Set to false to block XML External Entities and other threats embedded in XML files, and other files that contain embedded content threats.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended).
$allow_insecure_deserialization = true; // bool | Set to false to block Insecure Deserialization and other threats embedded in JSON and other object serialization files, and other files that contain embedded content threats.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended).
$allow_html = true; // bool | Set to false to block HTML input in the top level file; HTML can contain XSS, scripts, local file accesses and other threats.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended) [for API keys created prior to the release of this feature default is true for backward compatability].
$restrict_file_types = "restrict_file_types_example"; // string | Specify a restricted set of file formats to allow as clean as a comma-separated list of file formats, such as .pdf,.docx,.png would allow only PDF, PNG and Word document files.  All files must pass content verification against this list of file formats, if they do not, then the result will be returned as CleanResult=false.  Set restrictFileTypes parameter to null or empty string to disable; default is disabled.

try {
    $result = $apiInstance->scanFileAdvanced($input_file, $allow_executables, $allow_invalid_files, $allow_scripts, $allow_password_protected_files, $allow_macros, $allow_xml_external_entities, $allow_insecure_deserialization, $allow_html, $restrict_file_types);
    print_r($result);
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo 'Exception when calling ScanApi->scanFileAdvanced: ', $e->getMessage(), PHP_EOL;
}
?>

Provide a free-tier API key in the $config parameter to authenticate your request and customize as many hidden threat policies as you see fit. That’s all there is to it! This API will also scan files for millions of virus and malware signatures.