File Extension Library


.CIH File Extension

  • Developer by: AVAST Software a.s.
  • Category: Dangerous and malicious Files

What are .CIH files and how to open them?

Can't open .CIH file? Are you wondering what it contains? On our site we will explain to you what this file is, what it is used for and what software opens the .CIH file.

What is a .CIH file extension?

.CIH file extension is created by AVAST Software a.s.. .CIH has been classified as Dangerous and malicious Files.

.CIH is Chernobyl virus data

The cih file extension was sometimes used by a very dangerous Chernobyl virus (also known as Spacefiller) that first appeared in 1998.

Its payload is highly destructive to vulnerable systems, overwriting critical information on infected system drives, and in some cases destroying the system BIOS.

Very dangerous, should be purged using anti-virus software.

.CIH file format is deprecated and this file format is no longer supported.

Currently, .CIH file type is not actively used and is obsolete. This usually happens with system files in older operating systems, files from long-discontinued software, or with previous versions of some file types (documents, projects, images, etc.) that were replaced in later versions of the original programs.


How to open:

This file type is not meant to be opened directly, there is no software that could open and work with it directly, or there is no information available in public sources about opening this file type. This is usually the case of some internal data files, caches, temporary files etc.

How to convert:

As far as we know, this .cih file type can't be converted to any other file format. This is usually the case of system, configuration, temporary, or data files containing data exclusive to only one software and used for its own purposes. Also some proprietary or closed file formats cannot be converted to more common file types in order to protect the intellectual property of the developer, which is for example the case of some DRM-protected multimedia files.

How to fix problems with .CIH files

  1. You need to update the application that you normally use to open .CIH files. Only the latest version of the software supports the current .CIH file format
  2. You need to check the .CIH file for viruses. To do this, you need to scan it with a popular antivirus (Norton, Nod32, Kaspersky, Dr.Web, etc.)