diff --git a/libziparchive/include/ziparchive/zip_archive.h b/libziparchive/include/ziparchive/zip_archive.h
index 3d51de9c0..005d6977d 100644
--- a/libziparchive/include/ziparchive/zip_archive.h
+++ b/libziparchive/include/ziparchive/zip_archive.h
@@ -48,9 +48,10 @@ struct ZipEntryCommon {
   // Modification time. The zipfile format specifies
   // that the first two little endian bytes contain the time
   // and the last two little endian bytes contain the date.
-  // See `GetModificationTime`.
+  // See `GetModificationTime`. Use signed integer to avoid the
+  // sub-overflow.
   // TODO: should be overridden by extra time field, if present.
-  uint32_t mod_time;
+  int32_t mod_time;
 
   // Returns `mod_time` as a broken-down struct tm.
   struct tm GetModificationTime() const;
diff --git a/libziparchive/zip_archive.cc b/libziparchive/zip_archive.cc
index 7bf2120e2..014f88131 100644
--- a/libziparchive/zip_archive.cc
+++ b/libziparchive/zip_archive.cc
@@ -1570,6 +1570,7 @@ bool ZipArchive::InitializeCentralDirectory(off64_t cd_start_offset, size_t cd_s
   return true;
 }
 
+// This function returns the embedded timestamp as is; and doesn't perform validations.
 tm ZipEntryCommon::GetModificationTime() const {
   tm t = {};