How to Protect Zip file with Password on Ubuntu

Protect your compressed zip file with a password on Linux is pretty easy. There are several ways and tools to protect your file with a password on Linux.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to protect zip file with a password using the command line and GUI on Ubuntu 22.04.

Requirements

• Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop installed in your system.
• A normal user with sudo privileges.

Create Password Protected Zip file from Command Line

First, you will need to install zip and unzip packages on your system. You can install both packages with the following command:
sudo apt-get install zip unzip -y

First, create a sample file that you want to encrypt.
nano test1

Add some content:
This is my first password protected zip file


Save and close the file.

Next, create a zip archive with a password by running the following command:
zip --encrypt test1.zip test1

You will be prompt to enter the password as shown below:
Enter password:
Verify password:
adding: test1 (deflated 2%)


Now, try to unzip the password-protected zip file:
unzip test1.zip

You will need to provide a password in order to unzip the file:
Archive: test1.zip
[test1.zip] test1 password:
inflating: test1


Create Password Protected Zip file from GUI

You can also create a password-protected zip file from the graphical environment.

To do so, right-click on the file you want to secure and click on the Compress:

Now, select the compression format and click on the Other Options. You should see the following page:

Now, provide the password and click on the Create button. Once the file compressed successfully, you should see the newly created zip file in the following page:

To unzip the file, right-click on the zip file and click on the Extract Here button. You will be prompt to enter the password. Provide the password and click on the Ok button to finish.

This tutorial taught us how to create a password-protected zip file on Ubuntu 18.04 with a command line and graphical environment.