Corrupted ZIP file for testing (CRC error)

A ZIP archive that lists normally but fails on extraction: one byte of the entry data/payload.bin has been changed, so its contents no longer match the stored CRC-32.

sample-zip-corrupted.zip

5.19 KB5,316 bytes

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Type: application/zip
SHA-256: 78bd72ab1028499f43b2b75b21a32b3f1bd9f5108e35e7ea45cc21d732dfaebd
Direct URL: https://www.sampletestfiles.com/downloads/samples/sample-zip-corrupted.zip

This file is invalid on purpose. One byte in the stored entry data/payload.bin was inverted after the archive was written, so the entry fails its CRC-32 check. The other two entries are sound.

Why test with this file

Tests whether extraction verifies checksums. The directory is intact, so the damage only appears when the entry is read, which is where careless code hands corrupt data onward without noticing.

Damage	CRC-32 mismatch in data/payload.bin
Entries	3 (README.txt, data/customers.csv, data/payload.bin)
Central directory	Intact, so the entries can be listed
Sound entries	README.txt and data/customers.csv extract correctly
Encrypted	No

What to check

After your application has processed sample-zip-corrupted.zip, confirm that:

Extraction reports a checksum error for data/payload.bin and does not pass its bytes on as good data.
The two sound entries are either extracted or rolled back, whichever your design calls for, and never left half-written.
An integrity test such as "unzip -t" or "7z t" fails, and your application treats that failure as an error.

First bytes of the file

The first 64 bytes of sample-zip-corrupted.zip as a hex dump: offset, bytes, then the same bytes as text. The ZIP signature is 50 4B 03 04.

00000000  50 4b 03 04 14 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 21 5c f1 4a  |PK..........!\.J|
00000010  97 07 59 00 00 00 5e 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 52 45  |..Y...^.......RE|
00000020  41 44 4d 45 2e 74 78 74 05 c1 41 0e 40 30 10 05  |ADME.txt..A.@0..|
00000030  d0 bd 53 fc 0b a8 84 23 58 d9 09 56 76 a3 86 4e  |..S....#X..Vv..N|

Preview

No preview is offered, because this file is damaged on purpose. Download it and give it to the software you are testing.

Technical details

File name	sample-zip-corrupted.zip
Format	ZIP (ZIP archive)
Extension	.zip
MIME type	application/zip
Size	5,316 bytes (5.19 KB)
Kind	Binary
Signature	50 4B 03 04
SHA-256	78bd72ab1028499f43b2b75b21a32b3f1bd9f5108e35e7ea45cc21d732dfaebd
Created	2026-10-10
Validation	Deliberately invalid. Independent parsers were confirmed to reject or flag the file when it was generated
Preview	Not offered for deliberately damaged files
Source	Generated for this site; not copied from elsewhere
Licence	Free to use, modify and redistribute (terms)
Category	Archives

Damaged on purpose, and otherwise harmless: the file holds the same generated content as the valid samples. As with any download, scan the file with your own security tools before opening it. How files are made and checked

Download from the command line and verify

Fetch the file with curl, then compare its checksum with the SHA-256 value above.

curl -o sample-zip-corrupted.zip 'https://www.sampletestfiles.com/downloads/samples/sample-zip-corrupted.zip'
sha256sum sample-zip-corrupted.zip     # Linux
shasum -a 256 sample-zip-corrupted.zip # macOS

On Windows, run Get-FileHash sample-zip-corrupted.zip -Algorithm SHA256 in PowerShell. A matching value proves that the download is complete and unaltered.

About ZIP

The most common archive format: many files compressed individually in one container.

ZIP format reference

Where it fits

File upload testing
Test an upload form or endpoint with files of every size and type it should accept, and several it should refuse.
File parser testing
Well-formed files and deliberate edge cases for testing code that reads CSV, JSON, XML, PDF and more.
QA testing
A ready-made set of ordinary and awkward files for exploratory testing and test plans.

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