Independent REA Analysis of 7zr.exe 26.05

INDEPENDENT REA DEMONSTRATION · NOT CLIENT WORK

Kai, the studio's AI assistant, used REA with its Ghidra provider to answer two narrow questions about 7zr.exe 26.05. This was an independent static-analysis exercise. The executable was not run, and this was neither a vulnerability test nor work for 7-Zip.

SOURCE AND INTEGRITY The 602,624-byte Windows PE32 executable came from the official 7-Zip 26.05 release. Its local SHA-256, 9bf582b894dfa665f852d7e9112b02290a1c303c2d95a21fcdc41ffcb03143b7, matched the hash published for that release asset.

QUESTION 1 · WHERE IS COMMAND-LINE HELP WRITTEN? REA located usage text at address 0x480a34. A reference at 0x43cb4f leads to the function at 0x43cb25–0x43cb5c. Ghidra's decompilation shows that function writing a heading with fputs and, when its second parameter is nonzero, writing extended help with another fputs call. REA found three calls from the routine at 0x43ac19. This maps one help-display path; it does not establish every input condition that reaches it.

QUESTION 2 · WHAT DOES THE FILE DECLARE TO WINDOWS? The PE resources include version information and a manifest. At file offset 578408, the manifest declares requestedExecutionLevel=asInvoker, uiAccess=false, and longPathAware=true. These are file declarations, not proof of runtime permissions or all program behavior.

METHOD AND BOUNDARY The sample verified the file hash, inspected the PE and its resources, searched strings, followed references, and decompiled the two cited functions. Ghidra indexed 4,528 functions and 763 defined strings; this sample examines only the path and resources above. Decompiled names and types are inferences. Runtime behavior, compatibility, security, and the rest of the program remain untested.

The full evidence report is available on request. A commissioned analysis would begin with an authorized client-supplied executable and two precise questions, with a funded fixed-price project agreed before substantive work.

Official release: https://github.com/ip7z/7zip/releases/tag/26.05 Official 7-Zip license: https://www.7-zip.org/license.txt