The signature MZ is associated with which file type?

• A. ZIP
• B. EXE
• C. PDF
• D. PNG

Answer: (B)

The MZ signature is the classic magic header for executable files. It comes from the DOS executable format created by Mark Zbikowski, and Windows PE executables preserve this MZ header at the very start. When a loader sees MZ at the beginning, it signals that the file is an executable and should be treated as code to be run (often with the real PE header located further inside the file). That makes MZ a reliable indicator of executables, rather than a compressed archive or a document. By contrast, ZIP files start with PK, PDFs with %PDF-, and PNG images with an 8-byte signature beginning 89 50 4E 47, so those formats wouldn’t have the MZ header.