What causes "write archive %s: %w" in moonD4rk/HackBrowserData?

Inspect the wrapped error (%w) from the message to identify the specific I/O cause.

write archive %s: %w

Error message

write archive %s: %w

What it means

WriteArchive wraps failures from fileutil.ZipDir(outPath, staging) — the step that compresses the staged files into the final archive — with the output path for context. The underlying %w error (I/O failure, disk full, permission problem) is preserved for errors.Is/As unwrapping. This is a wrapper error: diagnose the cause from the wrapped error.

Source

Thrown at browser/archive.go:65

			seen[entry] = true

			dst := filepath.Join(staging, key, filepath.FromSlash(src.LayoutRel))
			if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(dst), 0o755); err != nil {
				log.Warnf("archive: %s: %v", entry, err)
				continue
			}
			if err := session.Acquire(src.AbsPath, dst, src.IsDir); err != nil {
				log.Warnf("archive: acquire %s: %v", entry, err)
				continue
			}
			count++
		}
	}
	if count == 0 {
		return 0, fmt.Errorf("no decryption-relevant files found to archive")
	}
	if err := fileutil.ZipDir(outPath, staging); err != nil {
		return 0, fmt.Errorf("write archive %s: %w", outPath, err)
	}
	return count, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 0503d04d7a)

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped error (%w) from the message to identify the specific I/O cause.
Ensure the output directory exists and is writable: create it with os.MkdirAll before calling WriteArchive.
Check free disk space and that outPath doesn't collide with an existing directory.
Re-run with a different output path if the file is locked by another process/AV.

Example fix

// before: output dir may not exist
WriteArchive(profileDir, "/tmp/out/archive.zip")
// after
os.MkdirAll("/tmp/out", 0o755)
WriteArchive(profileDir, "/tmp/out/archive.zip")

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(outPath), 0o755); err != nil {
    return err
}
if info, err := os.Stat(filepath.Dir(outPath)); err != nil || !info.IsDir() {
    return fmt.Errorf("output dir not writable")
}

Try / catch

n, err := browser.WriteArchive(profileDir, outPath)
var perr *fs.PathError
if err != nil {
    if errors.As(err, &perr) {
        return fmt.Errorf("archive write failed at %s: %w", perr.Path, err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Create the output directory with os.MkdirAll before archiving.
Check available disk space for large profiles.
Ensure outPath doesn't collide with an existing directory.
Handle the wrapped fs.PathError for precise diagnostics.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling WriteArchive where file count > 0 (files staged fine) but ZipDir fails writing outPath — e.g. output directory doesn't exist, no write permission, outPath already exists as a directory, or disk full.

Common situations: Writing the archive to a read-only or nonexistent output directory, targeting a path with invalid characters/permissions, running out of disk space during zipping of large profiles, or antivirus locking the output file.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to write file", "Could not save figure", "Error saving remote file" — file write failed: causes and fixes across languages and libraries — this error's family across 38 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of moonD4rk/HackBrowserData@0503d04d7a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3dead829ec4bd878. Report an issue: GitHub.