File scan report
Verdict Suspicious
Is chickenchips.
One antivirus engine (Symantec (Norton)) flags this Windows program; nothing else confirms it is harmful.
Why Suspicious? One antivirus engine (Symantec (Norton)) flags it; nothing else confirms it.
Limited evidence
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
Don't run it unless you're sure where it came from.
Check where you got it: an unexpected attachment, a link someone sent you or a re-upload is a red flag.
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
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.
- Ask for free help on the MalwareTips forumWindows malware removal help, answered by volunteers. (opens malwaretips.com in a new tab)
- Remove malware from WindowsStep-by-step cleanup with free tools. (opens malwaretips.com in a new tab)
Paste this report's link in your topic so helpers can see what was found.
Reads the latest antivirus results for this file's hash. Nothing is uploaded.
Antivirus results
1 of 69 flagged
- Flagged 1
- No detection 68
- No result 6
- Code signing Unsigned
- Test run Completed
- First seen 4mo ago
Chapter 02
Why we think so
4 points against it and 4 in its favour, checked against the scan evidence.
The reasoning behind this verdict
70 other engines including major antivirus engines remain silent, no sandbox malice verdict was recorded, and no external researchers have published corroborating signals.
The file presents a mixed-signal profile. However, the lack of major consensus (only 1 engine, not ≥3), absence of malicious sandbox verdicts, zero contacted malicious hosts, and silence from 70 other engines—including major peers like Kaspersky, BitDefender, and ESET—suggest either a false positive or a low-confidence detection. The file's newness (10 days, 1 submitter) and absence of external-intel corroboration (no YARA rules, no CIRCL entry, no MalwareBazaar family) further weaken confidence. The evidence is insufficient for a malicious verdict but too concerning for a safe rating.
What We Detected
Symantec (a major antivirus engine) flagged this file with a generic machine-learning label 'ML.Attribute.HighConfidence'.
Threat Behavior
The file is unsigned, newly submitted (10 days old), and rare (1 submitter, 3 submissions). No complete contacted-host reputation result was available, and no malicious programs it started were dropped. Seventy other antivirus engines, including major antivirus engines (Kaspersky, BitDefender, ESET, Avast, Fortinet), reported the file as clean or undetected.
External Intelligence
No external researchers have published YARA rules matching this sample (yaraify.ruleCount=0). The file does not appear in CIRCL's reference database or MalwareBazaar's malware family catalogue. No similar-hash entries exist in our historical verdicts, so we cannot ground the call on prior analysis of related samples.
What To Do Now
Exercise caution. Do not execute this file on a production system. If you downloaded it, isolate it and consider submitting it to your security team for manual analysis. Monitor for updates as more engines analyse the sample.
Where this verdict could be wrong2 caveats
- Symantec's 'ML.Attribute.HighConfidence' is a machine-learning rule-based label, not a named family signature. ML detections on rare unsigned binaries can reflect model overfitting or false positives, especially when 70 other engines (including major peers like Kaspersky, BitDefender, ESET) remain silent.
- The file was first seen on May 31, 2026 with 3 submissions from 1 source. It may be a newly compiled legitimate tool, a researcher sample, or a low-volume malware variant not yet widely distributed. The lack of external-intel corroboration (no YARA rules, no CIRCL hit, no MalwareBazaar family) weakens confidence in malice.
These are the assessment's weak points. If you believe one applies to your file, report the verdict and we'll re-review it.
- 70/71 antivirus engines (including major peers) reported clean or undetected
- No malicious sandbox verdict recorded
- No malicious files it created
- PE binary structure not packed or high-entropy obfuscated
- Unsigned executable with no publisher history
- Rare and newly submitted (10 days old, 1 submitter)
- Generic machine-learning detection label (not a named family)
- No external-researcher corroboration (zero YARA rules, no CIRCL/MalwareBazaar hits)
6 sources checked · 5 complete · 1 not needed or not applicable. 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- 5sandbox rule tags
- 2spawned processes
- 0network contacts
- 1filesystem & 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).
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 contacting a server, but no contacted host 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.
- 1
Input file
The submitted object
- Evidence 1 of 4: FileSeen in the test run
chickenchips.exe
4d4b158f3a7ab1908b2a660a898ff0d418fbbb653cbb6c0c95aa16431707f656
Uploaded file
- 2
Processes
What ran
- Evidence 2 of 4: ProcessSeen in the test run
chickenchips.exe
"C:\Users\<USER>\Desktop\chickenchips.exe"
Test run - Evidence 3 of 4: ProcessSeen in the test run
chickenchips.exe
"C:\Users\user\Desktop\chickenchips.exe"
Test run - +1 more recorded observation
- 1
Files
Created or changed
- Evidence 4 of 4: Written fileSeen in the test run
Connect
\Device\ConDrv\\Connect
Test run
4 facts from the test run. See the full activity list.
Includes 5 mapped techniques and every process, file, registry and network entry.
Show the technical evidenceChapter 04
Technical details
1 of the 69 antivirus engines that checked it flags it; no publisher signature.
Sources checked
Every check behind this verdict
6 sources checked · 5 complete · 1 not needed or not applicable. Complete means the check returned a usable result; it does not mean the file is safe.
Engines that flagged it 1
- Symantec (major engine)ML.Attribute.HighConfidence
File fingerprint
- Last analyzed
- Jun 9, 2026, 8:16 PM UTC
- SHA-256
4d4b158f3a7ab1908b2a660a898ff0d418fbbb653cbb6c0c95aa16431707f656- SHA-1
926faaa019b1f959b9cd9b76037f994e3412c206- MD5
42d749ab7bfb9b50068b50f81c059a88
About this file
chickenchips.exe is a Win32 EXE file of 136.2 kB.
- Type and size
- Win32 EXE · 136.2 kB
- Signer
- UnsignedNo code signature.
- First seen
- May 31, 2026On VirusTotal.
- Submitted by
- 1 sourceRarely seen: few people have submitted this exact file.
- Packer
- None detected
- Entropy
- 3.60 of 8
First scanned
Includes every engine result (75), 1 matched signature rule, PE section entropy and packers and how widely the file has been seen.
Show the technical evidenceChapter 05
Questions & answers
Short answers to the 6 questions people ask most about this file.
Is chickenchips.exe safe, or is it malware?
What is chickenchips.exe?
How many antivirus engines detected chickenchips.exe?
I already downloaded and ran chickenchips.exe — what should I do?
What is the SHA-256 hash of chickenchips.exe?
How up to date is this analysis of chickenchips.exe?
Community
Member reviews and reports for this exact file hash.