File verdict·Decided by the MT AI Engine
Our call

Safe

Zero detections across 74 engines on a 1981-day-old PDF with no behavioural or external-intel flags.

Trust score88High trust
Theory of the Subject.pdf
7.0 MB
59b1f4fd2fc373fe7d9b9bfce466
Antivirus engines
0 of 74 flagged
Code signing
Unsigned
Age
First seen 5y ago
MT AI Engine · our arbiter

The 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.

85%Confidence
Very high
Reasoning

The complete absence of malicious engine detections, combined with a clean external-intel profile and no behavioural artefacts, indicates the file is benign. Its age and PDF format further reduce the likelihood of hidden threats. The low submission count is the only minor uncertainty, but it is outweighed by the unanimous clean consensus from tier-1 engines.

Key signals · 4

Each signal cites a concrete token from the evidence the arbiter saw — engine name, MITRE technique, signer string, or an exact count.

  1. engines.malicious=0 with 17 tier-1 engines reporting clean

  2. prevalence.classification=rare_old (2 submitters, 6 submissions)

  3. file.fileType=PDF and tags=["pdf","acroform"]

  4. externalIntel.yaraify.ruleCount=0

Points in its favour
  • Zero malicious detections from 17 tier-1 engines
  • No external intelligence hits
  • Long history with no prior malicious reports
What to do

Treat as safe for normal use; apply standard PDF precautions if the source is unknown.

No researcher-database hits
External threat-intel sources were not collected for this scan.
Antivirus engine breakdown

0 detections across 74 engines

0 malicious0 suspicious74 clean
Tier-117 engines
0flag
Top commercial AVs (low FP rate)
Tier-241 engines
0flag
Mainstream engines with mixed FP rates
Low-trust16 engines
0flag
Heuristic / generic-AI engines (high FP rate)
All 74 engines report this file as clean.
Hash 59b1f4fd2fc3… cross-referenced against 74 AV engines via our AV network.
Prevalence

How often this file shows up in the wild

Rarely uploaded, but has been around for a while. Often niche legitimate software or old internal tooling; not a strong malware signal on its own.

Rare & old
Unique uploaders
2
Very few people have ever uploaded this — rare.
Total submissions
6
Includes repeat uploads by the same source.
First seen by VT
5y ago
Feb 5, 2021
Prevalence quadrant
Rare · New
Targeted malware lives here
Common · New
Just-released software
here
Rare · Old
Niche or internal tooling
Common · Old
Trusted legitimate binaries
File identity

Forensic fingerprint

File biography
First seen (VT)
2/5/2021, 9:24:48 PM
First seen (MalwareBazaar)
Last analysis (VT)
2/23/2022, 11:38:09 PM
Scanned here
7/10/2026, 3:14:17 PM
File name
Theory of the Subject.pdf
Size
6.97 MB
MIME type
(unknown)
Detected type
PDF
SHA-256
59b1f4fd2fc373fe7d79980cb73ca2658a46aaecece532e00361f09b9bfce466
MD5
a8c02f3860ad7e715b9691c6f12b890c
SHA-1
c895d55fbed6fa5f6edbf5e1041310ef688404a3
First seen (VT)
2/5/2021, 9:24:48 PM
Last analysis (VT)
2/23/2022, 11:38:09 PM
First scan (MalwareTips)
7/10/2026, 3:14:17 PM
Last scan (MalwareTips)
7/10/2026, 3:14:17 PM
Behavior tags
pdfacroform
Frequently asked

Safety FAQ

Common questions about Theory of the Subject.pdf, answered from the scan data above.

  • Theory of the Subject.pdf appears safe. 74 of 74 antivirus engines report it clean. As a habit, only open files you downloaded from the official source, since attackers sometimes distribute trojanised copies of legitimate software under the same name.
  • Theory of the Subject.pdf is a document file, about 7 MB. Our analysis found no threat indicators for it. A file's name can be reused by different files, so we identify it by its cryptographic hash (below).
  • None — all 74 antivirus engines we queried report Theory of the Subject.pdf 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.
  • The SHA-256 hash of Theory of the Subject.pdf is 59b1f4fd2fc373fe7d79980cb73ca2658a46aaecece532e00361f09b9bfce466, and its MD5 is a8c02f3860ad7e715b9691c6f12b890c. 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 — Theory of the Subject.pdf shows no threat indicators. 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 July 10, 2026. Because a file's hash never changes, the identity of Theory of the Subject.pdf 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.
Community classification

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.

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Files are processed in a streaming pass-through — MalwareTips never stores the binary on its servers. Only the scan result (hash, detections, verdict) is retained so the next person who scans the same file gets an instant answer. If you ran this file on your computer and are worried, scan your system with an up-to-date antivirus and change critical passwords from a different device.