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File format coverage

The Spectra Assure platform supports a variety of archive and installer formats, as well as executable packers. A specific set of features is available for each of those file categories.

The Spectra Assure platform digs deep into the many layers of software, its components and dependencies, regardless of toolchain choices or the size of builds, releases, or containers being analyzed. It extracts metadata that provides critical information - often not available from other tools - for determining the intent and capabilities of every compiled software package.

With high accuracy, Spectra Assure products detect unauthorized software changes, malware or backdoors, and exposed secrets that can be used in software supply chain attacks.

During the analysis, all files receive one of the following classification states: Goodware, Suspicious, Malicious, or Unknown. Analysis results are saved to a report that can be exported and shared in several industry-standard formats.

The full report contains the aforementioned classification information along with the complete SBOM (Software Bill of Materials), deployment risks categorized by severity and priority, information on digital signatures, file behavior descriptions, extracted URIs, and many more details on the analyzed file.

In contrast, Spectra Assure generates only partial reports for unsupported file formats. A partial report means that Spectra Assure can only perform surface-level analysis without unpacking, which provides an insufficient risk assessment coverage.

To check if a file format is supported by Spectra Assure, consult the following reference tables on this page:

For every listed file format, the tables cover the following information:

  • Supported (Archive/Installer) Formats, Unsupported Formats, Executable Packers - the supported archives, installers, and packers, along with the unsupported filetypes
  • SFX Extraction - indicates if the Spectra Assure products can extract self-extracting (SFX) archive files of particular formats
  • Password Support - indicates if the Spectra Assure products can decrypt password-protected files of particular formats. If supported, the following default password list is used: password, infected, VelvetSweatshop, 1234
  • Signature Validation - indicates if the Spectra Assure products can validate digital signatures for particular formats
NOTE

In tables, the --- symbols indicate the feature is not applicable to the file format.

Supported formatsโ€‹

Supported archive formatsโ€‹

File FormatSFX ExtractionPassword SupportSignature Validation
7ZIPโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธ---
A/AR/LIB---------
ACEโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธ---
ALZโœ”๏ธโŒ---
APK:Alpine---------
AppImageโœ”๏ธ------
APPX---โŒโœ”๏ธ
ARC---------
ARJ---โŒ---
ASAR---------
BLZ---------
CABโœ”๏ธ---โœ”๏ธ
CBF:Compoundโœ”๏ธ---โœ”๏ธ
CPIO---------
CRX------โœ”๏ธ
DEB/UDEB---------
DMG:HFSX/HFS+---------
EGGโœ”๏ธโŒ---
GEM---------
GZIP---------
ISO---------
JAR/WAR/HPIโœ”๏ธ---โœ”๏ธ
LHA---------
LZ4---------
LZH---------
LZip---------
LZMA---------
LZOP---------
MAR---------
MIME---------
MSIโœ”๏ธ---โœ”๏ธ
MSIXโœ”๏ธ---โœ”๏ธ
NuGet------โœ”๏ธ
OEX---------
PAK---------
PYZ---------
RARโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธ---
RPM/DRPM---------
SQX---------
SZDDโœ”๏ธ------
TAR/TGZ---------
UDF---------
UUE---------
VHD:MBR
NTFS/FAT/EXT
---------
VHD:GPT
NTFS/FAT/EXT
---------
VSIXโœ”๏ธ---โœ”๏ธ
WARC---------
WHL---------
WIM---โœ”๏ธโŒ
XAR/PKG---------
XPI------โœ”๏ธ
XZ---------
YENC---------
Z---------
ZIPโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธ---
ZOO---------

Supported installer formatsโ€‹

File FormatSFX ExtractionPassword SupportSignature Validation
Actual installerโœ”๏ธโŒโœ”๏ธ
Advanced installerโœ”๏ธโŒโœ”๏ธ
DreamShieldโœ”๏ธ---โœ”๏ธ
InnoSetupโœ”๏ธโŒโœ”๏ธ
InstallAnywhereโœ”๏ธโŒโœ”๏ธ
InstallShieldโœ”๏ธโŒโœ”๏ธ
NSISโœ”๏ธโŒโœ”๏ธ
Py2ExeInstallerโœ”๏ธ---โœ”๏ธ
PyInstallerโœ”๏ธ---โœ”๏ธ
Wiseโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธ
WiX Toolsetโœ”๏ธโŒโœ”๏ธ

Supported executable packersโ€‹

This table lists only the most popular commercial and open source packers. Total coverage includes more than 200 executable packers.

Executable PackersPE 32bitPE 64bitPE.NET
32Liteโœ”๏ธ------
ASPackโœ”๏ธ------
eZIPโœ”๏ธ------
mPressโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธ
NeoLiteโœ”๏ธ------
nPackโœ”๏ธ------
nSPackโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธ
PackManโœ”๏ธ------
PEBundleโœ”๏ธ------
PECompactโœ”๏ธ------
RLPackโœ”๏ธ------
UPXโœ”๏ธโœ”๏ธ---
XPack/XCompโœ”๏ธ------
WinUPackโœ”๏ธ------
y0da Cryptโœ”๏ธ------
y0da Protectโœ”๏ธ------

Unsupported formatsโ€‹

Converting unsupported formats

If you're working with a format the Spectra Assure platform doesn't (fully) support, you can always convert it to any of the supported formats to get the full analysis report.

Unsupported FormatsSFX ExtractionPassword SupportSignature Validation
E01โŒ------
MDFโŒ------
NRGโŒ------
OVAโŒ------
OVFโŒ------
QCOWโŒ------
QCOW2โŒ------
RUNโŒ------
VDIโŒ------
VHDXโŒ------
VMDKโŒ------