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This seems like a simple question to find an answer for on Google but I'm having no luck, and when sites do mention anything about it, I fear that they are using "password protect" and "encrypt" interchangeably. If I compress a file using the built-in Windows XP compression capabilities, then go to File, Set Password, and set a password on that file, is that file actually being encrypted using ANY cipher (regardless of how strong), or is the password just some Windows XP function that can be easily bypassed by opening it with a different program or something?
Also, if it is being encrypted, any idea what the cipher is?
I know I could use better tools like 7-zip or something, but for the sake of argument I'm just wondering what the built-in tool is doing.
UPDATE: For anyone that needs this, the answer to my question specifically is here: https://security.stackexchange.com/a/20937
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Your answer can be found here: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/5447/how-secure-is-a-windows-password-protected-zip-file
– Apache – 2012-11-01T17:21:27.0901Which built-in Windows XP compression capability are you using? File compression (EFS) or archive compression (zip)? The answer to this question is completely different depending on exactly what you're doing. – David Schwartz – 2012-11-01T17:22:48.033
@Shiki thanks. I saw that post while googling, but the responses with the most votes were not very useful since the question asked "how secure" instead of asking for specifics. But after looking again, someone did provide useful info http://security.stackexchange.com/a/20937 Thanks!
– electronsrock – 2012-11-01T17:31:27.963