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Verdict Suspicious

Analyzed , 12 days ago

Is keygen.exe safe? Treat it as suspicious.

Detection agreement is limited—5 of the 69 antivirus engines that checked it flagged it, only one at major—and the completed sandbox assigned a clean result, so the evidence does…

Read the whole reasonShow less

Why Suspicious? 5 antivirus engines flag it; nothing else confirms it.

Limited evidence · One sign points to a problem; nothing else confirms it.

Don't run it until you know where it came from

If it came from a link, an attachment or a stranger, delete it.

What to do now4 steps

Some signs point to a problem, but nothing confirms it is harmful. Treat it with caution.

What to do

  1. Don't run it unless you're sure where it came from.

  2. Check where you got it: an unexpected attachment, a link someone sent you or a re-upload is a red flag.

  3. If you can't confirm where it came from, delete it. If you need the program, download it again from the publisher's own website.

If you already ran it

  1. Stop using it, run a full scan with your antivirus and watch for unexpected behavior or security alerts.

Not sure what to do?

Ask the MalwareTips community before you run it. If you already ran it, follow the cleanup guide.

Paste this report's link in your topic so helpers can see what was found.

Why we think so

Share this file report

keygen.exe: Suspicious — MalwareTips file scan

The link always shows the latest result for this exact file (its SHA-256 fingerprint).

Reads the latest antivirus results for this file's hash. Nothing is uploaded.

Antivirus results

5 of 69 flagged

  • Flagged 5
  • No detection 64
  • No result 5
Filekeygen.exe114.7 kBSHA-256 2dfbd25e7016…2b6ebc
  • Code signing Unsigned
  • Test run Completed
  • First seen 5y ago
5 of the 69 antivirus engines that checked it flag it, including Trend Micro and McAfee.

Chapter 02

Why we think so

3 points against it and 5 in its favour, checked against the scan evidence.

MT AI Engine · Verdict analysis

The reasoning behind this verdict

Analyst conclusion

Five of the 69 antivirus engines that checked it flagged the executable, including one major antivirus engine using the generic TL0101EQ26YX Trojan designation. More importantly, observation from the test run mapped and identified two processes receiving injected code. The file is unsigned, leaving no verified publisher identity that might explain such intrusive behavior. Counter-signals include a clean sandbox result, long-standing prevalence across 244 submitters, and no malware-specific external-intelligence match. Taken together, these mixed indicators warrant isolation and further investigation rather than execution.

Where this verdict could be wrong3 caveats
  • Only 5 of the 69 antivirus engines that checked it flagged the file, with just one detection from a major antivirus engine and no strong family consensus.
  • The file has circulated since 2021 across 244 submitters, which weighs against a newly deployed threat.
  • No malware-specific YARAify rule matched, although rule coverage gaps remain possible.

These are the assessment's weak points. If you believe one applies to your file, report the verdict and we'll re-review it.

6 sources checked · all complete. See every source

Chapter 03

What it did in our test

It ran in our isolated test environment; no test environment rated what it did as risky.

Test run summary

Capture complete
  • 10sandbox rule tags
  • 2spawned processes
  • 3network contacts
  • 17filesystem & mutex artifacts

What the test run showed

What the file did on a test computer

Confirmed in the test run

  • Moderate concern: Contains packed or scrambled code that is harder to inspect (common in installers too).

  • Moderate concern: Checked whether it was running on a test computer.

  • Note: Talked to servers over the internet during the test run.

  • Note: Read basic details of the test computer, such as its Windows version.

  • Note: Loaded extra code modules while running.

Sandbox labels we could not confirm (common in safe files too)

  • Not confirmed: A sandbox rule tagged this run as code injection, but no injected program was recorded.

  • Not confirmed: A sandbox rule tagged this run as recording keystrokes; no keylogging was confirmed.

  • Not confirmed: A sandbox rule tagged this run as creating a service; no new service was recorded.

  • Not confirmed: A sandbox rule tagged this run as setting up auto-start; no auto-start entry was recorded.

This file was run on a test computer (a sandbox), not on yours. Labels we could not confirm are listed so you can see them, but they are not treated as evidence against the file.

Recorded behavior

What happened in the test

Grouped by step. The order is not a timeline.

Seen in the test runWorked out from other results

  1. Input file

    The submitted object

    1
    1. Evidence 1 of 7: FileSeen in the test run

      keygen.exe

      2dfbd25e7016e83238f1d740cda53fc5279517b19af19b645e24b7e4862b6ebc

      Uploaded file

  2. Processes

    What ran

    2
    1. Evidence 2 of 7: ProcessSeen in the test run

      program.exe

      "C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\program.exe"

      Test run
    2. Evidence 3 of 7: ProcessSeen in the test run

      2dfbd25e7016e83238f1d740cda53fc5279517b19af19b645e24b7e4862b6ebc.exe

      Test run
    3. +1 more recorded observation

  3. Files

    Created or changed

    2
    1. Evidence 4 of 7: Written fileSeen in the test run

      ConDrv

      \Device\ConDrv

      Test run
    2. Evidence 5 of 7: Written fileSeen in the test run

      Connect

      \Device\ConDrv\\Connect

      Test run
    3. +1 more recorded observation

  4. Network

    Hosts contacted

    2
    1. Evidence 6 of 7: Contacted hostSeen in the test run

      23.223.54.201

      Contacted during the test run.

      Test run
    2. Evidence 7 of 7: Contacted hostSeen in the test run

      104.86.182.8

      Contacted during the test run.

      Test run
    3. +1 more recorded observation

7 facts from the test run. See the full activity list.

Chapter 04

Technical details

5 of the 69 antivirus engines that checked it flag it; no publisher signature.

Sources checked

Every check behind this verdict

6 sources checked · all complete. Complete means the check returned a usable result; it does not mean the file is safe.

SourceStatusResultChecked
Antivirus enginesVirusTotal · 74 enginesCompleteRisk signal: 5 of 69 engines flagged it · 5 gave no result Details for antivirus engines
Sandbox runVirusTotal sandboxesCompleteCombined summary: clean verdict Details for sandbox run
Contacted hostsMalwareTips URL scannerComplete22 contacted hosts checked Details for contacted hosts
Signature rulesYARAify community rules + MalwareTips rulesComplete1 MalwareTips behaviour rule Details for signature rules
Malware sample databaseabuse.ch MalwareBazaarCompleteNot listed
Known-software referenceCIRCL hashlookupCompleteNo match

Engines that flagged it 5

  • TrendMicro-HouseCall (major engine)Trojan.Win32.Gen.TL0101EQ26YX
  • APEXMalicious
  • CrowdStrikewin/malicious_confidence_60% (D)
  • MaxSecureTrojan.Malware.300983.susgen
  • McAfeeDti!2DFBD25E7016

File fingerprint

Last analyzed
Oct 13, 2026, 6:57 PM UTC
SHA-256
2dfbd25e7016e83238f1d740cda53fc5279517b19af19b645e24b7e4862b6ebc
SHA-1
864013e030a94dbda24d2b916e471337a5cfc568
MD5
87ed5dc74c7fd6dc06a53b4da44c9420

About this file

keygen.exe is a Win32 EXE file of 114.7 kB.

Type and size
Win32 EXE · 114.7 kB
Signer
UnsignedNo code signature.
First seen
Jan 10, 2021On VirusTotal.
Submitted by
244 distinct sources
Packer
None detected
Entropy
6.07 of 8

First scanned

Chapter 05

Questions & answers

Short answers to the 6 questions people ask most about this file.

Is keygen.exe safe, or is it malware?
keygen.exe is rated Suspicious: some signs point to a problem, but nothing confirms it is harmful. 5 of the 69 antivirus engines that checked it flag it. Don't run it unless you're sure where it came from. If you need the program, download it again from the publisher's own website.
What is keygen.exe?
keygen.exe is a Windows program, about 114.7 kB. It carries no version information saying what it is or who made it. VirusTotal first saw it on Jan 10, 2021.
How many antivirus engines detected keygen.exe?
5 of the 69 antivirus engines that checked it flag keygen.exe, including Trend Micro and McAfee. We weigh which engines flagged it and what else the scan found, not just the count.
I already downloaded and ran keygen.exe — what should I do?
No infection is confirmed: the rating is a caution, not a malware finding. 1) Check where it came from. If you can't confirm the source, delete it. 2) Run a full scan with your security software. 3) If the scan finds something, follow its removal steps and change passwords you typed on the device since then.
What is the SHA-256 hash of keygen.exe?
The SHA-256 fingerprint of keygen.exe is 2dfbd25e7016e83238f1d740cda53fc5279517b19af19b645e24b7e4862b6ebc, and its MD5 is 87ed5dc74c7fd6dc06a53b4da44c9420. Two files with the same SHA-256 are identical, so use it to check you have exactly this file, not just one with the same name.
How up to date is this analysis of keygen.exe?
This report reflects the scan on Oct 13, 2026. A file's fingerprint never changes, but antivirus engines keep learning, so a rating can change later. To get a newer result, scan the file again: we refresh the antivirus results when the saved ones are out of date.
Chapter 06

Community

Member reviews and reports for this exact file hash.

Related file reports

Other files people checked with the same name, and recent reports with the same rating. A matching name does not make two files the same: only the SHA-256 fingerprint identifies a file.

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This report and its SHA-256 fingerprint are public, so the next person who checks the same file gets an instant answer; documents and images are listed by type instead of their file name. A file we had not seen before is uploaded to VirusTotal, whose security partners and subscribers can download it; MalwareTips deletes its own copy after the scan. If you ran this file and are worried, scan your device with up-to-date security software.