WAV file with a truncated header

Handle it in code

Each snippet below was run against this exact file with Python 3.14.4 and Node 24.15.0 when this page was built, and the output shown is what it printed.

Python

Compare what the header declares with what the file holds, and refuse a header that is itself cut short.

import wave

try:
    with wave.open("truncated-header.wav") as w:
        declared = w.getnframes()
        frame_size = w.getsampwidth() * w.getnchannels()
        actual = len(w.readframes(declared)) // frame_size
    note = "truncated or lying header" if actual < declared else "ok"
    print(f"header says {declared} frames, file holds {actual}: {note}")
except (wave.Error, EOFError) as e:
    print("rejected:", str(e) or "the header is cut short")

Run against this file, it prints: rejected: the header is cut short