Safe
Legitimate unsigned 7-Zip installer (matches official 7z2301-x64.exe) with perfect clean scans, high prevalence, and behavior consistent with SFX unpacking to standard install path.
26cb6e9f5633368212…c33b5598cdThe verdict, reasoned out.
Not a rules engine. The MT AI Engine reads every signal we collected, weighs them against history, and commits to an answer.
No engines detect malice despite good coverage, with 17 tier-1 explicitly clean. Extreme prevalence and CIRCL reference to official 7-Zip filename confirm commodity software. Synthesis heuristics trigger on typical installer actions like shell process interaction and direct IP cert checks, but no malicious outcomes (no sandbox verdicts, no bad children/hosts). Unsigned status is notable but historical reputation and file age support benign nature. Community notes are split but AV consensus dominates.
Each signal cites a concrete token from the evidence the arbiter saw — engine name, MITRE technique, signer string, or an exact count.
0/71 engines malicious (17 tier1 clean including Avast/Avira/BitDefender/Kaspersky/ESET)
prevalence.classification='common_old' (95016 submissions, 3702 uniqueSources)
externalIntel.circl.hit=true ('7z2301-x64.exe')
behaviour.filesWritten['C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7-zip.chm']
file.ageDays=1057, reputation=183
- 0 malicious engines (tier1Malicious=0)
- common_old prevalence (95k submissions)
- CIRCL hit on official 7z2301-x64.exe
- filesWritten to standard 7-Zip path
- reputation=183, age=1057 days
- unsigned (signing.signed=false)
- triggeredHeuristics['MalwareTips.Synth.ProcessInjection'] high severity
- behaviour.offensiveTechniques includes T1055 (process injection)
- some communityComments tag 'stealer/spyware'
- direct IP contacts (no DNS)
This file is safe and appears to be a legitimate 7-Zip installer. Download official signed versions from 7-zip.org to avoid unsigned copies.
What this file did when executed
This file was detonated in 1 sandbox and its runtime behaviour was observed.
Adversary techniques mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
- 20.99.185.48
- 192.229.211.108
- 20.99.184.37
- 23.216.147.76
- 20.99.186.246
- 23.216.147.64
- 20.69.140.28
- a83f:8110:0:0:1400:1400:2800:3800
- 20.99.133.109
- 192.168.0.1
- http://crt.sectigo.com/SectigoPublicCodeSigningCAR36.crt
- http://crt.sectigo.com/SectigoPublicCodeSigningRootR46.p7c
- http://www.microsoft.com/pki/certs/MicrosoftTimeStampPCA.crt
- http://www.microsoft.com/pki/certs/MicCodSigPCA_08-31-2010.crt
- C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7-zip.chm
- C:\Program Files\7-Zip\descript.ion
- C:\Program Files\7-Zip\History.txt
- C:\Program Files\7-Zip\Lang\af.txt
- C:\Program Files\7-Zip\Lang\an.txt
- C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\7-Zip\7-Zip File Manager.lnk
- C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\7-Zip\7-Zip Help.lnk
- C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\KnownGameList.bin
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER28E0.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
- C:\Windows\System32\spp\store\2.0\cache\cache.dat
- cversions.3.m
- oleacc-msaa-loaded
- CTF.LBES.MutexDefaultS-1-5-21-1482476501-1645522239-1417001333-500
- CTF.Compart.MutexDefaultS-1-5-21-1482476501-1645522239-1417001333-500
- CTF.Asm.MutexDefaultS-1-5-21-1482476501-1645522239-1417001333-500
Files this sample writes at runtime
This file drops 10 children at runtime. None are currently flagged malicious in our cache.
- 7f11663757a2bdc19354…bf08faNever scannednever seen before
- 1da513f5a4e8018b9ae1…dbbf4fNever scannednever seen before
- 4db8e6da476fadef909a…5d584fNever scannednever seen before
- 8413fb6f6f8c9f31a10d…6e5ae9Never scannednever seen before
- e6a716c27f11bfadba85…7c3a6aNever scannednever seen before
- c082aed224d70a3f77e6…1fa071Never scannednever seen before
- 288ba639155a8f208c74…e4c0fcNever scannednever seen before
- c9a10ee60f89a139d363…fd133cNever scannednever seen before
- 88972f7e173cfed678fb…f0c2fdNever scannednever seen before
- 61d67f81971a8a209304…539992Never scannednever seen before
1 corroborating signal from researcher-curated sources
YARA + heuristic rules that fired
A researcher-curated or high-severity heuristic rule matched this sample. These rules target specific malware families and are near-definitive.
MITRE T1055 (Process Injection) observed — CreateRemoteThread / APC / reflective-DLL injection. The payload is being smuggled into a legitimate process to bypass AV hooks.
EvidenceC:\Windows\Explorer.EXESandbox observed process activity targeting LSASS (Windows credential store). Legitimate software has no business reading LSASS memory — this is Mimikatz-shape behaviour.
EvidenceC:\Windows\system32\lsass.exeSample contacted 19 external IP address(es) and zero domains. Benign software virtually always uses DNS; no-DNS direct-IP C2 is a strong malware indicator because it bypasses reputation systems and dodges domain-based blocklists.
Evidence20.99.185.48 · 192.229.211.108 · 20.99.184.37
0 detections across 75 engines
Section entropy & packers
Section-level entropy and packer detection from the PE header. Nothing suspicious here — entropy is within the normal range for unpacked code.
How often this file shows up in the wild
Widely seen in the wild for a long time. High prior this is legitimate; isolated detections on common-old files are usually false positives.
Forensic fingerprint
- File name
- 7zipInstall.exe
- Size
- 1.52 MB
- MIME type
- (unknown)
- Detected type
- Win32 EXE
- SHA-256
- 26cb6e9f56333682122fafe79dbcdfd51e9f47cc7217dccd29ac6fc33b5598cd
- MD5
- e5788b13546156281bf0a4b38bdd0901
- SHA-1
- 7df28d340d7084647921cc25a8c2068bb192bdbb
- PE imphash
- cf0d2de4fd6406302012e0f40060395f
- First seen (VT)
- 6/20/2023, 6:39:11 AM
- Last analysis (VT)
- 5/7/2026, 1:55:05 PM
- First scan (MalwareTips)
- 5/12/2026, 12:15:26 AM
- Last scan (MalwareTips)
- 5/12/2026, 4:29:48 AM
- Community reputation
- +183trusted
Reviews & malware reports(0)
Tell the community what you saw. Tag the sample — Trojan, Adware, False Positive — and share what the file did on your system. Your report helps confirm or dispute the AV verdict.