Is ZExe.exe safe?
Thirty of 75 engines flagged this unsigned executable, while runtime analysis recorded offensive techniques and a malware sandbox determination consistent with a Draftor-related trojan.
The sample has substantial independent detection: 30 of 75 engines flagged it, including six high-trust votes and several Draftor labels. A completed sandbox run also produced a malware determination and mapped activity to process injection, defense impairment, event-triggered execution, archiving, and non-standard protocol use.
2a8d9976f344fe87f9…a71ce2905b4434Recommended next actions
Before running
Do not run it. Delete this file from the device, then empty the Recycle Bin or Trash.
If you already ran it
Disconnect from the internet, start a full or offline antivirus scan, then secure important accounts from a clean device.
Intelligence
The saved assessment, checked against the scan evidence and recorded coverage.
The reasoning behind this verdict
This section explains the evidence supporting the verdict and keeps conflicting or missing signals visible.
The sample has substantial independent detection: 30 of 75 engines flagged it, including six high-trust votes and several Draftor labels. A completed sandbox run also produced a malware determination and mapped activity to process injection, defense impairment, event-triggered execution, archiving, and non-standard protocol use.
Thirty of 75 engines detected the executable, and six high-trust engines contributed malicious votes. Several engines, including BitDefender, Emsisoft, GData, and TrendMicro, associate it with Draftor, although the independent tier-1 family consensus is not strong. Runtime analysis adds important corroboration through a malware sandbox determination and six offensive MITRE techniques, including T1055 and T1562.001. The executable is unsigned and has no established publisher history. The observed domains had no adverse cached reputation, and no inspected child was confirmed malicious, but those counter-signals do not overcome the combined engine and runtime evidence.
What We Detected
Thirty of 75 antivirus engines flagged the executable, including six high-trust detections. BitDefender, Emsisoft, GData, and TrendMicro reported Draftor-related labels, while Microsoft used the Yomal family name and several other engines returned generic trojan or high-confidence machine-learning detections.
Threat Behavior
One completed sandbox run produced a malware determination. Recorded techniques include T1055 process injection, T1134 access-token manipulation, T1546.001 event-triggered execution, T1560 data archiving, T1562.001 defense impairment, and T1571 non-standard protocol use. The program contacted two domains and three IP addresses; the two domain names received no malicious or suspicious match in the completed cache check, but this does not negate the offensive behavior.
What To Do Now
Do not execute the file. Keep endpoint protection enabled, quarantine or remove the sample, and run a full system scan if it was opened. If execution occurred, review running processes, startup and event-triggered persistence, security-control changes, and outbound traffic associated with the observed domains.
Where this verdict could be wrong4 caveats
- engines.tier1FamilyConsensus.strong=false: only two independent tier-1 votes form the Draftor family consensus, while several other high-trust labels are generic or name Yomal.
- contactedHosts.inspected=2 found no cached malicious or suspicious result for the two observed domains.
- externalIntel.yaraify.ruleCount=0, externalIntel.circl.hit=false, and externalIntel.malwareBazaar.hit=false.
- droppedChildren.hasMaliciousChild=false, but all 9 inspected children have unknown verdicts rather than confirmed benign results.
These are the assessment's weak points. If you believe one applies to your file, report the verdict and we'll re-review it.
- contactedHosts.inspected=2 returned no cached malicious or suspicious domain matches
- droppedChildren.hasMaliciousChild=false
- peAnalysis.likelyPacked=false and peAnalysis.highEntropyCode=false
- externalIntel.yaraify.ruleCount=0 and externalIntel.circl.hit=false
- 30/75 antivirus detections
- Six high-trust malicious votes
- Malware determination from one completed sandbox
- T1055 process injection evidence
- T1562.001 defense-impairment evidence
- Unsigned Win32 executable with no signer history
Quarantine the executable and do not run it; keep antivirus and endpoint protection enabled. If it already executed, perform a full scan and investigate process injection, security-control changes, persistence, and related network activity.
Coverage & freshness
Complete means the check returned a usable result. It does not mean the file is safe.
Antivirus
Complete30 of 75 engines flagged the file.
Sandbox
Complete1 isolated runtime environment contributed observations.
Network
Partial2 of 5 contacted hosts were cross-checked; coverage is incomplete.
YARA
Complete1 signature or behavior rule matched.
External intel
Complete3 of 3 independent reference sources completed.
Behavior
Plain-English impact first, then the observed runtime evidence.
Runtime flight recorder
Capture complete- 1isolated sandbox run
- 22MITRE ATT&CK techniques
- 3spawned processes
- 5network contacts
- 22filesystem & mutex artifacts
What this file does
Observed actions and their security significance
High concern: Injected code into another process, a technique that can conceal execution.
High concern: Used an input-capture technique that can record credentials or keystrokes.
High concern: Configured an event-triggered execution mechanism.
High concern: Attempted to impair or bypass security controls.
Moderate concern: Contained obfuscated or packed code that makes inspection harder.
Moderate concern: Communicated over a common application protocol; malware can use this for command-and-control.
Moderate concern: Scans through your files and folders.
These are observed capabilities from an isolated analysis. A technique does not prove malicious intent on its own, and the file never ran on your device.
Threat context
How trojans work
A trojan disguises itself as something useful or harmless to trick you into running it. Once open, it does its real job in the background — anything from stealing data to opening a back door or downloading more malware.
Bottom line:The disguise is the whole trick, so a trustworthy-looking name or icon means nothing.
Attack story
Runtime observations grouped by analysis stage. Arrows organize the stages; they do not claim chronology or causality.
Input file
The submitted object
- FileObserved
ZExe.exe
2a8d9976f344fe87f94de46804b540a9b906c4ecd7cf0a1eb0a71ce2905b4434
01Uploaded file
Processes
Runtime execution
- ProcessObserved
Observed process
C:\Users\<USER>\Downloads\ZClient.exe
02Isolated runtime analysis - ProcessObserved
Observed process
"C:\Users\user\Desktop\ZClient.exe"
03Isolated runtime analysis - +1 more recorded observation in Analyst mode
Files
Created or changed
- Written fileObserved
ZClient.exe
C:\Users\<USER>\Downloads\ZClient.exe
04Isolated runtime analysis - Written fileObserved
ZClient.zlo
C:\ProgramData\ZLOEmu\ZClient.zlo
05Isolated runtime analysis - +1 more recorded observation in Analyst mode
Network
Hosts contacted
- Contacted hostObserved
zm.zloemu.net
Contact observed during runtime.
06Isolated runtime analysis - Contacted hostObserved
cdncf.zloemu.net
Contact observed during runtime.
07Isolated runtime analysis - +1 more recorded observation in Analyst mode
7 recorded facts from one runtime window. Every fact remains independently traceable in Analyst mode.
What this file did when executed
This file was detonated in 1 sandbox; 1 returned "malicious".
Adversary techniques mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
- zm.zloemu.net
- cdncf.zloemu.net
- 8.8.8.8
- 145.239.130.55
- 172.67.160.147
- SOFTWARE\ZLO\ZClientPath
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\zlo\Shell\Open\Command\(Default)
- HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-4270068108-2931534202-3907561125-1001\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.exe\OpenWithProgids\exefile
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ZLO
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\zlo
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\zlo\DefaultIcon
- C:\Users\<USER>\Downloads\ZClient.exe
- C:\ProgramData\ZLOEmu\ZClient.zlo
- C:\ProgramData
- C:\ProgramData\ZLOEmu
- C:\ProgramData\ZLOEmu\Avatars
- C:\Users\<USER>\Downloads\ZClient.exe.old
- C:\Users\<USER>\Downloads\ZClient.exe
- C:\ProgramData\ZLOEmu\ZClient.zlo
- ZClient.exe.old
- C:\ProgramData\ZLOEmu\ZCache.db-journal
Files this sample writes at runtime
This file drops 9 children at runtime. None are currently flagged malicious in our cache.
- 023d1c5eab62ff7bad98…0355b5Never scannednever seen before
- 85094073b16529194a5f…192039Never scannednever seen before
- a677bb0e79c3c623fdba…a10e34Never scannednever seen before
- b8a35d6a262597849a12…39c8c7Never scannednever seen before
- 9d88ac0000e903985bf1…4663b8Never scannednever seen before
- 01ca65f71266d077cca6…a0f76fNever scannednever seen before
- a16d40235c4b9e350b91…47c155Never scannednever seen before
- 79e8c7f527cc7462e30a…d54319Never scannednever seen before
- 3de44737b06247f434d8…1b8ce2Never scannednever seen before
Detection & Forensics
Consensus, attribution, signatures, code structure, prevalence, and identity.
Evidence integrity
Chain of custody for the facts preserved in this report.
- 1rule hit recorded
- 30 / 75engines flagged
- 56sources in submission history
Why these facts are shown
Each statement identifies whether it was directly recorded or derived from saved scan facts.
- 01
1 isolated runtime environment classified the observed behavior as malicious.
Verdict inputView chapterProvenanceObservedSourceIsolated runtime analysisObserved at - 02
1 high-confidence signature or behavior rule matched this file.
Verdict inputView chapterProvenanceDerivedSourceSignature and behavior rulesObserved at - 03
30 of 75 antivirus engines flagged the file, including alibabacloud and ALYac.
Verdict inputView chapterProvenanceObservedSourceAntivirus analysisObserved at - 04
Scanned file: ZExe.exe — 2a8d9976f344fe87f94de46804b540a9b906c4ecd7cf0a1eb0a71ce2905b4434
ProvenanceObservedSourceUploaded fileObserved at - 05
Observed process — C:\Users\<USER>\Downloads\ZClient.exe
ProvenanceObservedSourceIsolated runtime analysisObserved at - 06
Observed process — "C:\Users\user\Desktop\ZClient.exe"
ProvenanceObservedSourceIsolated runtime analysisObserved at - 07
File written: ZClient.exe — C:\Users\<USER>\Downloads\ZClient.exe
ProvenanceObservedSourceIsolated runtime analysisObserved at - 08
File written: ZClient.zlo — C:\ProgramData\ZLOEmu\ZClient.zlo
ProvenanceObservedSourceIsolated runtime analysisObserved at - 09
Contacted host: zm.zloemu.net — Contact observed during runtime.
ProvenanceObservedSourceIsolated runtime analysisObserved at - 10
Contacted host: cdncf.zloemu.net — Contact observed during runtime.
ProvenanceObservedSourceIsolated runtime analysisObserved at
Detection sources at a glance
Category: generic-trojan
MalwareBazaar, YARAify, and CIRCL hashlookup completed and returned no entries for this hash.
Signatures and behavior heuristics
A community signature or high-severity behavioral heuristic matched. Signatures identify known patterns; heuristics are strong leads but are not proof on their own.
The saved runtime evidence maps this activity to MITRE T1055 (Process Injection). The mapping supports possible process injection, but it does not prove the exact injection method or the operator's intent.
EvidenceC:\Users\<USER>\Downloads\ZClient.exe
30 of 75 engines flagged this file
View all 75 engine results
Section entropy & packers
No high-entropy executable section or known packer signature was detected. Data and resource sections can still have high entropy without indicating packed code.
How widely this file has been seen
Moderate prevalence — neither rare nor common. No strong prior applies.
Fingerprint and provenance
- File name
- ZExe.exe
- Format
- Win32 EXE
- Code signing
- No verified publisher
- Size
- 459.0 KB
- Last analyzed
- Sep 27, 2026, 7:40 PM UTC
2a8d9976f344fe87f94de46804b540a9b906c4ecd7cf0a1eb0a71ce2905b4434Safety & FAQ
Complete recovery guidance and answers for the next decision.
What to do now
This file is dangerous. Treat it as harmful and remove it.
- Recovery step 01
Don't run this file. Delete this file from the device, then empty the Recycle Bin or Trash.
- Recovery step 02
If you already ran it, disconnect from the internet and start with a full antivirus scan or Microsoft Defender Offline scan. If compromise is suspected or the problem persists, use a reputable second-opinion scanner and follow incident-recovery or clean-reinstall guidance.
- Recovery step 03
From a different, clean device, change the passwords on your important accounts (email and banking first) and turn on two-factor authentication.
- Recovery step 04
Get a fresh copy from the developer's official site or an official app store.
Safety FAQ
Direct answers grounded in the saved verdict and evidence in this report.
Is ZExe.exe malware?
What is ZExe.exe?
How many antivirus engines detected ZExe.exe?
I already downloaded and ran ZExe.exe — what should I do?
How do I remove ZExe.exe?
What kind of malware is ZExe.exe?
What is the SHA-256 hash of ZExe.exe?
How up to date is this analysis of ZExe.exe?
Community
Member reviews and reports for this exact file hash.