Table of Contents
Is Your AMD Graphics Card Putting Your Files at Risk Right Now?
A dangerous hole exists in 7-Zip software that bad guys can use to break into your computer. This problem affects older versions (before 25.x), and hackers started using it to attack people. You need to fix this right away, especially if you have an AMD graphics card installed on your computer.
What Makes This Security Hole Dangerous
The flaw (called CVE-2025-11001) gets a danger score of 7.0 out of 10. Here’s how it works:
- Hackers create fake ZIP files with special tricks inside them
- When you open these files, the bad code sneaks into places on your computer it shouldn’t go
- This lets attackers run their own programs using your computer’s permissions
- The flaw has been around since version 21.02, meaning many computers stayed vulnerable for years
Security experts discovered this problem back in October, and NHS England warned hospitals about active attacks happening in November 2025. Someone even shared step-by-step instructions online showing exactly how to exploit it.
Why AMD Graphics Card Users Face Extra Risk
If you use AMD graphics cards, you have a bigger problem. AMD’s driver software comes with old 7-Zip files (version 24.x) that contain this security hole. These files sit in this location on your computer:
C:\Program Files\AMD\AMDInstallManager
The files you need to worry about are named 7z.exe and 7z.dll. AMD hasn’t updated these yet, so you must replace them yourself with the fixed version 25.01.
How to Protect Yourself Now
Take these steps to stay safe:
- Download 7-Zip version 25.01 from the official website (the fix came out in July 2025).
- Check if you have AMD drivers installed on your computer.
- Manually replace the old 7z.exe and 7z.dll files in the AMD folder with new ones from version 25.01.
- Don’t open ZIP files from people you don’t trust or emails you weren’t expecting.
- Keep watching for AMD driver updates that include the fixed version.
The 7-Zip creator fixed this in July, but many programs that use 7-Zip inside them still carry the old, unsafe version. This means even if you updated 7-Zip yourself, other software might still put you at risk.