WinRAR 7.12 and RAR 7.12 Officially Released: Key Updates and Features Unveiled

On June 24, 2025, the iconic archiving tool [WinRAR 7.12](https://www.rarlab.com/download.htm) and RAR 7.12, developed by Eugene Roshal and the RARLAB team, were officially released. The new major version of this popular file compression software is now available for Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, and FreeBSD. The [source code](https://www.rarlab.com/rar_add.htm) for this latest version is also accessible under a [restrictive](https://www.win-rar.com/gtb_priv.html?&L=0) license agreement.

While the RAR7 project still falls short of LZMA2 in terms of compression ratio when using dictionaries up to 4GB, it offers significantly faster compression speeds and supports features not available in tools like 7-Zip, such as recovery information and tracking of not only file modifications but also creation and last access dates. The previously released 7-Zip 24.09 supports the updated RAR format.

Key [updates](https://www.rarlab.com/rarnew.htm) and changes in WinRAR 7.12 and RAR 7.12 include:

— In previous versions of WinRAR, Windows RAR, UnRAR, portable builds from UnRAR source code, and UnRAR.dll could be misled by paths specified in specially crafted archives instead of those provided by the user during extraction. However, the RAR versions, UnRAR, UnRAR source code for Unix, and the UnRAR library, along with RAR for Android, were unaffected.
— The «Create Report» feature used to include names of archived files in the HTML report as-is, which enabled the inclusion of potentially unsafe HTML tags. To prevent such injections, the current version replaces file name characters in the HTML report with strings.
— When both the «Test archived files» and «Recovery volumes» options are used simultaneously, recovery volumes are also tested. Earlier versions would finish testing before creating recovery volumes, meaning they weren’t verified.
— The accuracy of file timestamps in nanoseconds is preserved for Unix file records when modifying RAR archives in Windows. Previously, this was converted to Windows precision at a scale of 100 nanoseconds.

At the end of November 2024, a representative from the WinRAR team [indicated](https://habr.com/ru/news/862654/) that users purchase approximately 10,000 licenses for the software each month.

It’s worth noting that the SMM specialist for [WinRAR](https://www.rarlab.com/download.htm) makes an effort to express gratitude under every tweet about license purchases shared on social media X.

In January 2022, the WinRAR development team [discontinued](https://habr.com/ru/news/647667/) support for Windows XP. The graphical interface of version 6.1 is now only available on Microsoft OS starting with Windows Vista. Previously, support for Windows 2000, 95, 98, ME, and NT was also dropped.

In August 2023, developers from RARLAB [released](https://habr.com/ru/news/755612/) WinRAR version 6.23. The update addressed a critical vulnerability, identified as [CVE-2023-40477](https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-23-1152/), which allowed attackers to remotely execute malicious code on a system unnoticed by the user upon opening a specifically crafted RAR archive.

Since 1993, WinRAR has adapted alongside numerous operating systems and architectures, serving several generations of IT professionals who continue to [purchase licenses](https://www.rarlab.com/shop2rarlab-index.php?prod=winrar&x-source=winraronly) when possible. According to a [Wiki explanation](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinRAR), the console version Rar.exe remains functional on operating systems starting from Windows XP.

WinRAR 7 is available for free, either with a trial notification or without reminders for activation if a perpetual license is purchased.