What is a decompression bomb, and should I be worried?

[REDACTED]

I recently did a full system scan overnight on my computer and my computer didn't show that it found any viruses, which was nice, but I also got error messages that said some files couldn't be read. I had 12 different files that were unable to be read because they were compression bombs. So my questions are, what exactly is a compression bomb, should I be worried about how many there are, and what should I do with the files? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Asyn]

These are just highly packed archives, usually nothing to worry about...

[Eddy]

If they aren't too large, you can scan them on https://www.virustotal.com/

[DavidR]

- Decompression Bomb, a file that is highly compressed, which could be very large when decompressed. This used to be a tactic long ago to swamp the system.

The name really is the most dangerous thing about this and I wish they would change it or simply not report it, a real PITA.

These highly compressed files are generally 'archive' files which are inert, don't present an immediate risk until they are unpacked. If you happen to select 'All packers' in your on-demand scans then you are more likely to come across this type of thing. Personally it is a waste of time scanning 'all packers' and that is why it isn't enabled by default.

[Pondus]

If you search this forum for decompression bomb you should find lots of info