hashcat reads compressed wordlists, hash lists and rule files directly, so there is no need to decompress one first:

$ hashcat -m 22000 hash.hc22000 rockyou.txt.gz

hashcat neither includes nor links the compression code. Each library is loaded the first time its format is used. hashcat starts and runs normally without these libraries installed. A missing library affects only the formats that require it.

Opening a .zst file on a machine without libzstd gives an error that names every library file hashcat tried and the package to install. A .gz still opens on that same machine, because the formats are independent of one another.

• docs/hashcat-compression-libraries.md lists the exact file names tried on Linux, Windows and macOS, and the two features that need a compression library even when no compressed file is named