Create an encrypted ZIP file in Python

Question

I am creating an ZIP file with ZipFile in Python 2.5, it works ok so far:

import zipfile, os

locfile = "test.txt"
loczip = os.path.splitext (locfile)[0] + ".zip"
zip = zipfile.ZipFile (loczip, "w")
zip.write (locfile)
zip.close()

but I couldn't find how to encrypt the files in the ZIP file. I could use system and call PKZIP -s, but I suppose there must be a more "Pythonic" way. I'm looking for an open source solution.

Answer 1

I created a simple library to create a password encrypted zip file in python. - here

import pyminizip

compression_level = 5 # 1-9
pyminizip.compress("src.txt", "dst.zip", "password", compression_level)

The library requires zlib.

I have checked that the file can be extracted in WINDOWS/MAC.

Answer 2

The duplicate question https://stackoverflow.com/a/2366917/874188 recommends using 7z instead of zip. My experience bears this out.

Copy/pasting the answer by @JFSebastian here too for completeness:

To create encrypted zip archive (named 'myarchive.zip') using open-source 7-Zip utility:

rc = subprocess.call(['7z', 'a', '-mem=AES256', '-pP4$$W0rd', '-y', 'myarchive.zip'] + 
                     ['first_file.txt', 'second.file'])

To install 7-Zip, type:

$ sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

To unzip by hand (to demonstrate compatibility with zip utility), type:

$ unzip myarchive.zip

And enter P4$$W0rd at the prompt.

Or the same in Python 2.6+:

>>> zipfile.ZipFile('myarchive.zip').extractall(pwd='P4$$W0rd')

Answer 3

pyminizip works great in creating a password protected zip file. For unziping ,it fails at some situations. Tested on python 3.7.3

Here, i used pyminizip for encrypting the file.

import pyminizip
compression_level = 5 # 1-9
pyminizip.compress("src.txt",'src', "dst.zip", "password", compression_level)

For unzip, I used zip file module:

from zipfile import ZipFile

with ZipFile('/home/paulsteven/dst.zip') as zf:
    zf.extractall(pwd=b'password')

Answer 4

This thread is a little bit old, but for people looking for an answer to this question in 2020/2021.

Look at pyzipper

A 100% API compatible replacement for Python’s zipfile that can read and write AES encrypted zip files.

7-zip is also a good choice, but if you do not want to use subprocess, go with pyzipper...

Answer 5

@tripleee's answer helped me, see my test below.

This code works for me on python 3.5.2 on Windows 8.1 ( 7z path added to system).

rc = subprocess.call(['7z', 'a', output_filename + '.zip', '-mx9', '-pSecret^)'] + [src_folder + '/'])

With two parameters:

1. -mx9 means max compression
2. -pSecret^) means password is Secret^). ^ is escape for ) for Windows OS, but when you unzip, it will need type in the ^.

Without ^ Windows OS will not apply the password when 7z.exe creating the zip file.

Also, if you want to use -mhe switch, you'll need the file format to be in 7z instead of zip.

I hope that may help.

Answer 6

You can use the Chilkat library. It's commercial, but has a free evaluation and seems pretty nice.

Here's an example I got from here:

import chilkat

# Demonstrates how to create a WinZip-compatible 128-bit AES strong encrypted zip
zip = chilkat.CkZip()
zip.UnlockComponent("anything for 30-day trial")

zip.NewZip("strongEncrypted.zip")

# Set the Encryption property = 4, which indicates WinZip compatible AES encryption.
zip.put_Encryption(4)
# The key length can be 128, 192, or 256.
zip.put_EncryptKeyLength(128)
zip.SetPassword("secret")

zip.AppendFiles("exampleData/*",True)
zip.WriteZip()