Is shell.txt safe?
No antivirus engine detected a threat in this small text file, and available external intelligence produced no matching malware indicators.
All 75 antivirus engines returned no malicious or suspicious detection, including 17 tier-1 engines. The sample is a 1,000-byte plain-text file with no external-intelligence matches, although it is newly observed and lacks completed runtime or contacted-host analysis.
5e1024a2f08a4e3ff0…e7daa8353b57c2Recommended next actions
Before opening
Open it only when its sender or download source is one you independently trust.
If you already opened it
Keep normal device protection enabled and stop if the file behaves unexpectedly.
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.
All 75 antivirus engines returned no malicious or suspicious detection, including 17 tier-1 engines. The sample is a 1,000-byte plain-text file with no external-intelligence matches, although it is newly observed and lacks completed runtime or contacted-host analysis.
The strongest evidence is complete agreement across the antivirus network: 0 of 75 engines flagged the sample, and 17 tier-1 engines reported no detection. Its identified format is a small plain-text file rather than an executable, making signing and PE-specific checks irrelevant. CIRCL, MalwareBazaar, and YARAify supplied no matching intelligence, though absence of a match does not prove harmless content. Five earlier text-file cases received clean assessments, but file-type-only similarity is weak supporting context. Because no sandbox run or complete contacted-host check is available, the assessment rests primarily on static scanning and file metadata.
What We Detected
The sample is a 1,000-byte plain-text file. None of 75 antivirus engines marked it malicious or suspicious, including 17 tier-1 engines, and no malware family was identified. CIRCL, MalwareBazaar, and YARAify returned no matching threat intelligence.
Threat Behavior
No completed sandbox observation is available, so runtime activity cannot be described. The contacted-host reputation check was also not completed or saved, meaning there is no complete network-reputation result. No dropped child evidence was supplied.
What To Do Now
The current evidence does not identify a threat. Because the exact hash is newly observed, inspect the text before using it as a script or command input, and keep endpoint protection enabled if its source or purpose is uncertain.
Where this verdict could be wrong3 caveats
- prevalence.classification=rare_new with 1 submitter and 1 submission, so the exact hash has little history.
- behaviour=null and contactedHosts=null, leaving the file contents and any potential network effects without completed runtime validation.
- The 5/5 similar safe verdicts are matchKind=filetype only, which is weak similarity and cannot establish that this file has equivalent contents.
These are the assessment's weak points. If you believe one applies to your file, report the verdict and we'll re-review it.
- 0 of 75 antivirus engines reported a malicious or suspicious result.
- All 17 reporting tier-1 engines returned no detection.
- No YARAify, MalwareBazaar, or CIRCL match was found.
- No brand mismatch or adversarial-input flag was detected.
- Five file-type-similar samples previously received safe verdicts.
- The exact hash is newly observed, with only 1 submission from 1 source.
- No completed sandbox observation is available.
- No complete contacted-host reputation result is available.
- Similar-file support is based only on the broad text-file type.
Normal handling is reasonable, but review the text before executing or pasting any embedded commands because no runtime analysis was completed. Keep endpoint protection enabled.
Coverage & freshness
Complete means the check returned a usable result. It does not mean the file is safe.
Antivirus
Complete0 of 75 engines flagged the file.
Sandbox
PartialRuntime data is present, but no completed sandbox environment is recorded.
Network
Not runNo contacted-host reputation check is recorded.
No timestamp recordedYARA
CompleteRule evaluation completed with no recorded matches.
External intel
Complete3 of 3 independent reference sources completed.
Behavior
Plain-English impact first, then the observed runtime evidence.
Runtime behavior was not available
The report does not treat a missing runtime observation as a clean result.
Detection & Forensics
Consensus, attribution, signatures, code structure, prevalence, and identity.
Evidence integrity
Chain of custody for the facts preserved in this report.
- 0rule hits recorded
- 0 / 75engines flagged
- 1sources in submission history
Why these facts are shown
Each statement identifies whether it was directly recorded or derived from saved scan facts.
- 01
0 of 75 antivirus engines flagged the file.
Verdict inputView chapterProvenanceObservedSourceAntivirus analysisObserved at - 02
No completed runtime observation is available for this file.
ProvenanceDerivedSourceRuntime coverageObserved at - 03
The hash has been submitted 1 time from 1 source.
ProvenanceDerivedSourceSaved report factsObserved at
Detection sources at a glance
The available sources did not agree on a named threat category.
MalwareBazaar, YARAify, and CIRCL hashlookup completed and returned no entries for this hash.
YARA rules
No matchesThe rule pass completed without a saved public match.
0 of 75 engines flagged this file
View all 75 engine results
PE structure
Not applicablePE structure analysis applies to Windows executable formats, not this file type.
How widely this file has been seen
Barely seen in the wild and first surfaced recently. That limits reputation evidence, but rarity alone is not proof of malware.
Fingerprint and provenance
- File name
- shell.txt
- Format
- Text
- Code signing
- Not applicable to this file type
- Size
- 1000 B
- Last analyzed
- Sep 26, 2026, 12:09 AM UTC
5e1024a2f08a4e3ff0984da19b76e3279fbcd81ab14a5b0bd8e7daa8353b57c2Safety & FAQ
Complete recovery guidance and answers for the next decision.
What to do now
This file appears low risk based on the evidence available now.
- Recovery step 01
Open it only when its sender or download source is one you independently trust.
- Recovery step 02
A clean result reduces known risk, but it cannot guarantee that every new or targeted threat has been detected.
- Recovery step 03
Keep your antivirus and Windows updates switched on so you stay protected.
Safety FAQ
Direct answers grounded in the saved verdict and evidence in this report.
Is shell.txt safe?
What is shell.txt?
How many antivirus engines detected shell.txt?
What is the SHA-256 hash of shell.txt?
Is it safe to open shell.txt?
How up to date is this analysis of shell.txt?
Community
Member reviews and reports for this exact file hash.