How to Retrieve a Complete Scan Report for Archives and Their Extracted Files in MetaDefender Core?

Overview

When you submit an archive (ZIP, RAR, Office container, etc.) to MetaDefender Core, the product can extract the archive and analyze every child file individually. To obtain a single JSON report that includes the original archive and all extracted child files, use the archive-specific retrieval endpoint.

Key Points

• Submit the archive for analysis using POST /file (asynchronous) or POST /file/sync (synchronous). The response contains a data_id which is the identifier you'll use to fetch results.

• To fetch the full analysis report including all extracted child files, call the archive fetch endpoint: GET /archive/{data_id}.

• The JSON for archive reports may include additional nodes such as extraction_info and detailed scan_details for each child file.

Steps to Configure

1. Upload the archive

Example (curl):

curl --request POST \

--url 'http://<core-host>:8008/file' \

--header 'apikey: {apikey}' \

-F 'file=@/path/to/archive.zip'

2. Wait for processing to complete

Poll GET /file/{data_id} until scan_results.progress_percentage reaches 100, or rely on a callback webhook.

Example poll (curl):

curl --request GET \

--url 'http://<core-host>:8008/file/{data_id}' \

--header 'apikey: {apikey}'

3. Retrieve the full archive report (includes child files)

Fetch the full JSON report that contains all extracted child files:GET /archive/{data_id}

Example (curl):

curl --request GET \

--url 'http://<core-host>:8008/archive/{data_id}' \

1. --header 'apikey: {apikey}'

Verify the Change

Check if the number of "data_id" entries are matching the number of extracted files from the scan results. (Take into account one extra "data_id" entry for the original archive)

Troubleshooting

• You don’t see all the child files in the report: Confirm you usedGET /archive/{data_id} rather than only GET /file/{data_id}.

• Large archives or many nested files: Responses can be very large; consider programmatic handling.

• You see extraction_info or extraction errors: These provide metadata or errors for files that couldn’t be extracted.