Safe
Clean across our antivirus network, signed by Gibson Research Corporation, and matches prevalent legitimate ValiDrive utility despite packer and heuristic flags.
382041665c4670222b…53b0ad19a4The reasoning behind this verdict
The MT AI Engine weighs every signal from this scan — antivirus detections, sandbox behaviour, code signing, prevalence and historical matches — to reach a single, evidence-based verdict.
Dominant clean engine consensus (0/72 malicious, full tier1 coverage) outweighs synthesis heuristics on injection/LSASS/IPs, which lack sandbox or detection corroboration. High prevalence and community validation as GRC's ValiDrive tool explain behavioural signals. Verified signing adds trust despite no historical stats. YARAify hits are packer/cert-focused, not malicious.
Each signal cites a concrete token from the evidence the arbiter saw — engine name, MITRE technique, signer string, or an exact count.
0/72 engines.malicious; 17 tier1ReportedClean
signing.verified=true; signer='Gibson Research Corporation'
prevalence.classification='common_old'; uniqueSources=3627
communityComments[1]: 'ValiDrive is a lightweight program for testing real flash drive capacity' linking grc.com
behaviour.hasMaliciousSandboxVerdict=false; droppedChildren.hasMaliciousChild=false
- 0 malicious engines (72 reporting, 17 tier1 clean)
- prevalence 'common_old' (3627 sources)
- signing.verified by Gibson Research Corporation
- communityComments validate as grc.com ValiDrive tool
- No malicious sandbox or children
- triggeredHeuristics 'ProcessInjection' (high severity, T1055)
- behaviour.offensiveTechniques includes LSASS targeting
- peAnalysis.likelyPacked=true (PECompact)
- Direct IP contacts without DNS (19 IPs)
This is the legitimate ValiDrive.exe from Gibson Research Corporation for USB drive testing. Safe to use; ignore heuristic flags explained by its low-level drive access.
What to do now
This file looks safe based on everything we checked.
This file is safe to use.
Good habit: only download files from the official website or an app store.
Keep your antivirus and Windows updates switched on so you stay protected.
PE Digital Certificate corroborated by 1 source
- 6 YARA rulesPE_Digital_Certificate, PE_Potentially_Signed_Digital_Certificate, pecompact2
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.
- 23.216.147.76
- 192.229.211.108
- 20.99.185.48
- 104.98.118.163
- 20.99.186.246
- 20.99.133.109
- 23.53.122.135
- 23.209.116.9
- 20.99.184.37
- 20.22.113.133
- C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_idx.db
- C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_16.db
- C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\FontCache\Fonts\Download-1.tmp
- \\?\PIPE\wkssvc
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD4EA.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD5B5.tmp.csv
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD5F4.tmp.txt
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERF15B.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERF15D.tmp.csv
- Local\Shell.CMruPidlList
- Local\SessionImmersiveColorMutex
- Global\SyncRootManager
- Local\Mutexf01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms
- Local\SHResolveLibrary:C:/Users/Virtual/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Libraries/Documents.library-ms
Files this sample writes at runtime
This file drops 2 children at runtime. None are currently flagged malicious in our cache.
- bd3493f96ae3dab469e6…0210d1Never scannednever seen before
- c9c6d514bef159b18f40…469361Never scannednever seen before
1 corroborating signal from researcher-curated sources
- PE_Digital_Certificateby albertzsigovits
- PE_Potentially_Signed_Digital_Certificateby albertzsigovits
- pecompact2by Kevin FalcozPECompact
- PECompact2xxBitSumTechnologiesby malware-lu
- PECompactV2XBitsumTechnologiesby malware-lu
YARA & heuristic rule matches
A researcher-curated or high-severity heuristic rule matched this sample. These rules target specific malware families and are near-definitive.
- PE_Digital_Certificate
- PE_Potentially_Signed_Digital_Certificate
- pecompact2
- PECompact2xxBitSumTechnologies
- PECompactV2XBitsumTechnologies
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\System32\svchost.exe -k NetworkService -pSandbox 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.
Evidence23.216.147.76 · 192.229.211.108 · 20.99.185.48
0 detections across 76 engines
Section entropy & packers
Executable sections have high entropy (7.2+) — the code is compressed or encrypted and only decrypted at runtime. Classic packing behaviour.
How widely this file has been seen
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
- ValiDrive.exe
- Size
- 104.0 KB
- MIME type
- (unknown)
- Detected type
- Win32 EXE
- SHA-256
- 382041665c4670222b8b2600df1e3f4ec97d2b24b071d0f94e503e53b0ad19a4
- MD5
- 1fa9affcc560b68c96e8f4e44d91385e
- SHA-1
- 564365650bc4603f6c5817f0ade8aa1ec7a7ca47
- PE imphash
- 09d0478591d4f788cb3e5ea416c25237
- First seen (VT)
- 2/28/2024, 8:26:11 AM
- Last analysis (VT)
- 4/5/2026, 6:09:20 AM
- First scan (MalwareTips)
- 4/24/2026, 6:09:57 AM
- Last scan (MalwareTips)
- 4/24/2026, 6:09:57 AM
- Code signer
- Gibson Research Corporationverified
- Community reputation
- +35trusted
Safety FAQ
Common questions about ValiDrive.exe, answered from the scan data above.
- ValiDrive.exe appears safe. 76 of 76 antivirus engines report it clean. It carries a verified digital signature from Gibson Research Corporation. As a habit, only run files you downloaded from the official source, since attackers sometimes distribute trojanised copies of legitimate software under the same name.
- ValiDrive.exe is a Windows executable program, about 104 KB. Our analysis found no threat indicators for it. It carries a verified digital signature from Gibson Research Corporation. A file's name can be reused by different files, so we identify it by its cryptographic hash (below).
- None — all 76 antivirus engines we queried report ValiDrive.exe as clean. That's reassuring, though brand-new malware can briefly evade detection before vendors add signatures, so we also weigh the file's behaviour and reputation.
- Yes — ValiDrive.exe carries a valid digital signature from Gibson Research Corporation, which confirms the file hasn't been tampered with since that publisher signed it. A valid signature is a positive signal, but note that malware is occasionally signed with stolen or abused certificates, so it isn't proof of safety on its own.
- The SHA-256 hash of ValiDrive.exe is 382041665c4670222b8b2600df1e3f4ec97d2b24b071d0f94e503e53b0ad19a4, and its MD5 is 1fa9affcc560b68c96e8f4e44d91385e. This hash is the file's unique fingerprint — two files with the same SHA-256 are identical. Use it to confirm you're looking at exactly this file (not just one with the same name) when comparing against antivirus databases or a download's published checksum.
- Based on this scan, yes — ValiDrive.exe shows no threat indicators and is properly signed. The important caveat is source: make sure you downloaded it from the official website or a trusted store, because attackers sometimes distribute malware-laced copies under a legitimate file's name. If your own antivirus flags it while we report it clean, that is most often a false positive, but verify the source before overriding your antivirus.
- This report reflects the scan run on April 24, 2026. Because a file's hash never changes, the identity of ValiDrive.exe is fixed — but antivirus coverage improves over time, so a file that looks clean today can pick up detections later (and vice-versa). If you need the latest picture, MalwareTips staff can re-run the analysis from scratch.
Reviews & malware reports(0)
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