Maybe you didn’t know it, but a Google-sponsored research team, namely the Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG), has detected a vulnerability in the WinRAR data compression and decompression software, leading to the execution of malicious code after opening certain files supposedly compressed in the RAR format.
The news that has been spread in specialized media describes that the aforementioned vulnerability is associated with WinRAR versions prior to 6.23 and can be exploited to attack or put cryptocurrency accounts and even financial operations at risk. However, this is a problem that has been quickly corrected with a security update for WinRAR. That is, version 6.23 of WinRAR already includes the necessary correction.
However, WinRAR is a program that does not have automatic updates, so the security hole discovered could still be active on millions of computers; We must not forget that WinRAR installations exceed 500 million and, in general, they have never needed user attention after the program starts up.
What to do to make WinRAR work safely on your PC?
Therefore, if you are a user of a version of WinRAR prior to 6.23 and want to avoid future complications, all you have to do is replace it with the latest version, and you do not need to uninstall it from your PC. To do this, you just have to go to the official WinRAR website, download the version of the software that matches your operating system and proceed to install it. This WinRAR installation will replace the previous one. The current version of WinRAR to date is 6.24.
Alternatives to WinRAR to open compressed files
In any case, as the situation becomes safer, you can opt for a permanent uninstallation of WinRAR and stick with the built-in file decompression tools in Windows 10 and Windows 11, or install reliable alternatives like 7-Zip, fully compatible with the RAR compression format.