diff --git a/autobuild/archive_utils.py b/autobuild/archive_utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c52ba4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/autobuild/archive_utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+import multiprocessing
+import tarfile
+import zipfile
+
+class ArchiveType:
+    GZ = "gz"
+    BZ2 = "bz2"
+    ZIP = "zip"
+    ZST = "zst"
+
+
+# File signatures used for sniffing archive type
+# https://www.garykessler.net/library/file_sigs.html
+_ARCHIVE_MAGIC_NUMBERS = {
+    b"\x1f\x8b\x08": ArchiveType.GZ,
+    b"\x42\x5a\x68": ArchiveType.BZ2,
+    b"\x50\x4b\x03\x04": ArchiveType.ZIP,
+    b"\x28\xb5\x2f\xfd": ArchiveType.ZST,
+}
+
+_ARCHIVE_MAGIC_NUMBERS_MAX = max(len(x) for x in _ARCHIVE_MAGIC_NUMBERS)
+
+
+def _archive_type_from_signature(filename: str):
+    """Sniff archive type using file signature"""
+    with open(filename, "rb") as f:
+        head = f.read(_ARCHIVE_MAGIC_NUMBERS_MAX)
+        for magic, f_type in _ARCHIVE_MAGIC_NUMBERS.items():
+            if head.startswith(magic):
+                return f_type 
+    return None
+
+
+def _archive_type_from_extension(filename: str):
+    if filename.endswith(".tar.gz"):
+        return ArchiveType.GZ
+    if filename.endswith(".tar.bz2"):
+        return ArchiveType.BZ2
+    if filename.endswith(".tar.zst"):
+        return ArchiveType.ZST
+    if filename.endswith(".zip"):
+        return ArchiveType.ZIP
+    return None
+
+
+def detect_archive_type(filename: str):
+    """Given a filename, detect its ArchiveType using file extension and signature."""
+    f_type = _archive_type_from_extension(filename)
+    if f_type:
+        return f_type
+    return _archive_type_from_signature(filename)
+
+
+def open_archive(filename: str) -> tarfile.TarFile | zipfile.ZipFile:
+    f_type = detect_archive_type(filename)
+
+    if f_type == ArchiveType.ZST:
+        return ZstdTarFile(filename, "r")
+
+    if f_type == ArchiveType.ZIP:
+        return zipfile.ZipFile(filename, "r")
+
+    return tarfile.open(filename, "r")
+
+
+class ZstdTarFile(tarfile.TarFile):
+    def __init__(self, name, mode='r', *, level=4, zstd_dict=None, **kwargs):
+        from pyzstd import CParameter, ZstdFile
+        zstdoption = None
+        if mode != 'r' and mode != 'rb':
+           zstdoption = {CParameter.compressionLevel : level,
+                         CParameter.nbWorkers : multiprocessing.cpu_count(),
+                         CParameter.checksumFlag : 1}
+        self.zstd_file = ZstdFile(name, mode,
+                                level_or_option=zstdoption,
+                                zstd_dict=zstd_dict)
+        try:
+            super().__init__(fileobj=self.zstd_file, mode=mode, **kwargs)
+        except:
+            self.zstd_file.close()
+            raise
+
+    def close(self):
+        try:
+            super().close()
+        finally:
+            self.zstd_file.close()
diff --git a/autobuild/autobuild_tool_install.py b/autobuild/autobuild_tool_install.py
index fdce205..3dfa5c6 100644
--- a/autobuild/autobuild_tool_install.py
+++ b/autobuild/autobuild_tool_install.py
@@ -14,15 +14,14 @@
 import os
 import pprint
 import sys
-import tarfile
 import urllib.error
 import urllib.parse
 import urllib.request
-import zipfile
 
 from autobuild import autobuild_base, common, configfile
 from autobuild.autobuild_tool_source_environment import get_enriched_environment
 from autobuild.hash_algorithms import verify_hash
+from autobuild import archive_utils
 
 logger = logging.getLogger('autobuild.install')
 
@@ -408,7 +407,7 @@ def _install_binary(configured_name, platform, package, config_file, install_dir
 
 def get_metadata_from_package(package_file) -> configfile.MetadataDescription:
     try:
-        with open_archive(package_file) as archive:
+        with archive_utils.open_archive(package_file) as archive:
             f = archive.extractfile(configfile.PACKAGE_METADATA_FILE)
             return configfile.MetadataDescription(stream=f)
     except (FileNotFoundError, KeyError):
@@ -442,15 +441,6 @@ def _default_metadata_for_package(package_file: str, package = None):
     return metadata
 
 
-def open_archive(filename: str) -> tarfile.TarFile | zipfile.ZipFile:
-    if filename.endswith(".tar.zst"):
-        return common.ZstdTarFile(filename, "r")
-    elif filename.endswith(".zip"):
-        return zipfile.ZipFile(filename, "r")
-    else:
-        return tarfile.open(filename, "r")
-
-
 class ExtractPackageResults:
     files: list[str]
     conflicts: list[str]
@@ -468,7 +458,7 @@ def raise_conflicts(self):
 
 
 def extract_package(package_file: str, install_dir: str, dry_run: bool = False) -> ExtractPackageResults:
-    with open_archive(package_file) as archive:
+    with archive_utils.open_archive(package_file) as archive:
         results = ExtractPackageResults()
         for t in archive:
             if t.name == configfile.PACKAGE_METADATA_FILE:
diff --git a/autobuild/autobuild_tool_package.py b/autobuild/autobuild_tool_package.py
index de168ff..4bbcadc 100644
--- a/autobuild/autobuild_tool_package.py
+++ b/autobuild/autobuild_tool_package.py
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@
 
 import getpass
 import glob
-import hashlib
 import json
 import logging
 import os
@@ -32,7 +31,7 @@
 from collections import UserDict
 from zipfile import ZIP_DEFLATED, ZipFile
 
-from autobuild import autobuild_base, common, configfile
+from autobuild import autobuild_base, common, configfile, archive_utils
 from autobuild.common import AutobuildError
 
 logger = logging.getLogger('autobuild.package')
@@ -306,7 +305,7 @@ def _create_tarfile(tarfilename, format, build_directory, filelist, results: dic
             tfile = tarfile.open(tarfilename, 'w:gz')
         elif format == 'tzst':
             tarfilename = tarfilename + '.tar.zst'
-            tfile = common.ZstdTarFile(tarfilename, 'w', level=22)
+            tfile = archive_utils.ZstdTarFile(tarfilename, 'w', level=22)
         else:
             raise PackageError("unknown tar archive format: %s" % format)
 
diff --git a/autobuild/common.py b/autobuild/common.py
index 19449d7..be48d3d 100644
--- a/autobuild/common.py
+++ b/autobuild/common.py
@@ -524,27 +524,3 @@ def has_cmd(name, subcmd: str = "help") -> bool:
     except OSError:
         return False
     return not p.returncode
-
-
-class ZstdTarFile(tarfile.TarFile):
-    def __init__(self, name, mode='r', *, level=4, zstd_dict=None, **kwargs):
-        from pyzstd import CParameter, ZstdFile
-        zstdoption = None
-        if mode != 'r' and mode != 'rb':
-           zstdoption = {CParameter.compressionLevel : level,
-                         CParameter.nbWorkers : multiprocessing.cpu_count(),
-                         CParameter.checksumFlag : 1}
-        self.zstd_file = ZstdFile(name, mode,
-                                level_or_option=zstdoption,
-                                zstd_dict=zstd_dict)
-        try:
-            super().__init__(fileobj=self.zstd_file, mode=mode, **kwargs)
-        except:
-            self.zstd_file.close()
-            raise
-
-    def close(self):
-        try:
-            super().close()
-        finally:
-            self.zstd_file.close()
diff --git a/tests/data/archive.tar.bz2 b/tests/data/archive.tar.bz2
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b61b590
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/data/archive.tar.bz2 differ
diff --git a/tests/data/archive.tar.gz b/tests/data/archive.tar.gz
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e81fb78
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/data/archive.tar.gz differ
diff --git a/tests/data/archive.tar.zst b/tests/data/archive.tar.zst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dadf6a1
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/data/archive.tar.zst differ
diff --git a/tests/data/archive.zip b/tests/data/archive.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0516b1c
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/data/archive.zip differ
diff --git a/tests/test_filetype.py b/tests/test_filetype.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8fd6fde
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_filetype.py
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import shutil
+from os import path
+from pathlib import Path
+from tests.basetest import temp_dir
+
+import pytest
+from autobuild import archive_utils
+
+
+_DATA_DIR = Path(__file__).parent / "data"
+
+_ARCHIVE_TEST_CASES = (
+    (path.join(_DATA_DIR, "archive.tar.bz2"), archive_utils.ArchiveType.BZ2),
+    (path.join(_DATA_DIR, "archive.tar.gz"), archive_utils.ArchiveType.GZ),
+    (path.join(_DATA_DIR, "archive.tar.zst"), archive_utils.ArchiveType.ZST),
+    (path.join(_DATA_DIR, "archive.zip"), archive_utils.ArchiveType.ZIP),
+)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("filename,expected_type", _ARCHIVE_TEST_CASES)
+def test_detect_from_extension(filename, expected_type):
+    f_type = archive_utils.detect_archive_type(filename)
+    assert f_type == expected_type
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("filename,expected_type", _ARCHIVE_TEST_CASES)
+def test_detect_from_signature(filename, expected_type):
+    with temp_dir() as dir:
+        filename_no_ext = str(Path(dir) / "archive")
+        shutil.copyfile(filename, filename_no_ext)
+        f_type = archive_utils.detect_archive_type(filename_no_ext)
+        assert f_type == expected_type
diff --git a/tests/test_package.py b/tests/test_package.py
index 027da83..cef055a 100644
--- a/tests/test_package.py
+++ b/tests/test_package.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 from zipfile import ZipFile
 
 import autobuild.autobuild_tool_package as package
-from autobuild import common, configfile
+from autobuild import common, configfile, archive_utils
 from tests.basetest import BaseTest, CaptureStdout, ExpectError, clean_dir, clean_file
 
 # ****************************************************************************
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ def tearDown(self):
 
     def tar_has_expected(self,tar):
         if 'tar.zst' in tar:
-            tarball = common.ZstdTarFile(tar, 'r')
+            tarball = archive_utils.ZstdTarFile(tar, 'r')
         else:
             tarball = tarfile.open(tar, 'r')
         packaged_files=tarball.getnames()