Why is .zip no longer accepted as attachment?

[Dennis Handly]

Several users have reported you can no longer attach .zip files.

http://community.hpe.com/t5/LoadRunner-Practitioners-Forum/In-Virtual-User-generator-run-time-settings-not-properly-visible/m-p/6877961#U6878331

The file RTS.zip does not have a valid extension for an attachment and has been removed. jpg,gif,png are the valid extensions.

Why was this changed?  And if on purpose, why wasn't this announced?

[Warren_Admin]

Hi Dennis,

Please check this post about security policy changes for further information on how and why this came about. 

Thanks,
Warren_Admin, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Community Manager
Any personal opinions expressed are mine, and should not be interpreted as official statements on behalf of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

[Steven Schweda]

> One of the primary methods of transmission of malware is through placing
> a virus or other malicious content in an attachment to either an email
> or a posting to an online site.

   Ok.  How does restricting file names prevent this?

> For example, a .zip file give[s] us (and our members) no idea of its
> contents.

   How is this different from any other file?  I generally can't tell
what's in a file until I open it, whether it's named ".txt" or ".zip" or
anything else.

[Warren_Admin]

Hi Steven,

The restrictions are over file formats. I apologize if I created an impression that the restriction was on file names,, rather than formats. It was unintentional on my part. 

Thanks,
Warren_Admin, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Community Manager
Any personal opinions expressed are mine, and should not be interpreted as official statements on behalf of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

[Steven Schweda]

> The restrictions are over file formats. I apologize if I created an
> impression that the restriction was on file names,, rather than formats.
> It was unintentional on my part.

   Even if that were true, it would not be an improvement.  Luckily,
it appears not to be.  For example, I just posted some Fortran source as
a ".jpg" file:

      http://community.hpe.com/t5/x/x/m-p/6884503

Firefox refuses to display it, so I infer that it's not a valid JPEG
image.

   Should I have posted pictures of screenshots instead of trying to
post a useful Fortran source file?  How stupid would that be?  It's bad
enough when some Windows user posts a picture (50KB) instead of three
lines of text (200B).  Making it impossible to post simple text as an
attachment is absurd.  Especially so, when copy+paste into the usual
input-text box gets your simple text reformatted in undesirable ways.

   If you ever rationalize this foolishness, you might consider allowing
".com", to accommodate DCL scripts for VMS users, too.

[Steven Schweda]

    Speaking of attachments, in a typical all-topics listing, like, say,
http://community.hpe.com/t5/forums/recentpostspage/category-id/itrc-288/post-type/thread
I can see "REPLIES" and "VIEWS" counts, but when looking at an actual
thread, like, say, http://community.hpe.com/t5/x/x/m-p/6884503
I see no way to get a count of downloads for any of the (deceptively
named) attachments.  A "DOWNLOADS" count for each attachment would seem
(to me) to be at least as valuable as a "VIEWS" count for the whole
topic.  Including "REPLIES" and "VIEWS" counts in the thread page itself
could be handy, too.  (Clearly those data are already available, and
there's plenty of pointless white space which could be doing something
useful.)  Just a thought.

[Dennis Handly]

>it appears not to be.

Yes, users have already figured this out.

>It's bad enough when some Windows user posts a picture (50KB) instead of three lines of text (200B).

Yes, .txt should be allowed.

>you might consider allowing ".com",

No, that is a Windows script extension.  I.e. just as bad as .exe.

[Steven Schweda]

> >you might consider allowing ".com",
>
> No, that is a Windows script extension. I.e. just as bad as .exe.

   It's a DCL script extension, too.  I'm not asking anyone to run the
thing.  If your Web browser is lame enough to try to execute any piece
of plain text which you try to view (or you are), then you deserve what
you get.  (I claim.)