Cabinet

File Format
Name	Cabinet
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Archiving Cabinet
Extension(s)	.cab
MIME Type(s)	application/vnd.ms-cab-compressed
PRONOM	x-fmt/414
Wikidata ID	Q194831
Released	1995

"CAB" redirects here. For another CAB format, see InstallShield CAB.

Cabinet (CAB) is a compressed archive format created by Microsoft and used in various installers. Among its several compression formats is LZX, a format co-created by Jonathan Forbes, who was hired by Microsoft after co-creating the format in an independent archiver, and contributed it to Microsoft for use in their products.

The PUZ format used by Microsoft Publisher for its "Pack and Go" feature is a Cabinet file with a .puz extension, containing the Publisher document and its external links. Same goes for PowerPoint's PPZ "Pack and Go" feature.

The Windows Installer (.msi) format is more-or-less the successor to this format.

Identification

Files begin with the ASCII signature "MSCF".

Software

• Konvertor
• libmspack and cabextract
• 7-Zip can decode at least some CAB files
• XAD framework

Sample files

• http://libxad.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/libxad/testfiles/CAB/
• dexvert samples — archive/cab

Links

• Official documentation at Microsoft developer site
• Wikipedia article
• Discussion of CAB file size limits
• ForensicsWiki entry (minimal details, already included here)