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I use Zip Bombs to Protect my Server
(idiallo.com)
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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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Out of curiosity, what is illegal about it, exactly?
I mean i am not a lawyer.
In germany we have § 303 b StGB. In short it says if you hinder someone elses dataprocessing through physical means or malicous data you can go to jail for up to 3 years . If it is a major process for someone you can get up to 5 and in major cases up to 10 years.
So if you have a zipbomb on your system and a crawler reads and unpacks it you did two crimes. 1. You hindered that crawlers dataprocessing 2. Some isp nodes look into it and can crash too. If the isp is pissed of enough you can go to jail for 5 years. This applies even if you didnt crash them due to them having protection against it, because trying it is also against the law.
Having a zipbomb is part of a gray area. Because trying to disrupt dataprocessing is illegal, having a zipbomb can be considered trying, however i am not aware of any judgement in this regard
Edit: btw if you password protect your zipbomb, everything is fine
TL;DR: It's illegal to have publically available or share.
Making it illegal to create one for research purposes on your own hardware is not illegal as far as I know. And if it is, I wouldn't mind seeing someone challenge that with the EU.
For research purposes you could make it password protected, which would make it legal, though. Like i said having one is a gray area, because the law is made extremly vague. Like i said i dont know of any judgements about it, but it is still a possibility. If you life in germany and are inclined for an archive bomb and care about your legal safety contact a lawyer beforehand