File verdict·Decided by the MT AI Engine
Our call

Safe

Single low-trust detection on a verified Grammarly-signed installer with classic AV-on-AV false-positive indicators.

Verified · Grammarly
Trust score82Moderate trust
GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.exe
95.5 KB
701c9a0330f3833e4a00150da518
Antivirus engines
1 of 74 flagged
Code signing
Signed by Grammarly
Age
First seen 14 days ago
MT AI Engine · Verdict analysis

The 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.

78%Confidence
High
Reasoning

The engine profile shows onlyLowTrustFlagging with zero tier-1 malicious detections, aligning directly with the av_on_av_fp_pattern heuristic. Signing is verified under the Grammarly name with no brand mismatch. While sandbox behaviour includes process injection and direct-IP contacts, the absence of malicious sandbox verdicts, dropped malicious children, or known-bad hosts keeps the overall risk low. Medium prevalence and the installer filename further support a benign commercial software interpretation.

Key signals · 5

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

  1. engines: 1/70 malicious (VBA32 low_trust 'suspected of Trojan.Notifier.gen'), tier1Malicious=0, 17 tier-1 clean

  2. signing.verified=true, signer='Grammarly'

  3. triggeredHeuristics: av_on_av_fp_pattern fired (low severity) with filename_security_software

  4. behaviour.offensiveTechniques count=7 but hasMaliciousSandboxVerdict=false and no malicious contacted hosts

  5. prevalence.classification=medium, similarHashes[0].verdict=suspicious (imphash match, signerCoMatch=false)

Points in its favour
  • Verified Grammarly signature
  • 17 tier-1 engines clean
  • Medium prevalence with installer filename
  • No malicious dropped children or hosts
Points against
  • 7 offensive MITRE techniques observed in sandbox
  • Direct-IP contacts with no DNS resolution
  • Process activity targeting LSASS
Recommended action

Treat as a legitimate Grammarly installer; the single low-trust detection is consistent with known AV-on-AV false-positive patterns for security-related filenames.

What to do now

This file looks safe based on everything we checked.

  1. This file is safe to use.

  2. Good habit: only download files from the official website or an app store.

  3. Keep your antivirus and Windows updates switched on so you stay protected.

Threat family attribution

notifier corroborated by 1 source

  • VT (74 engines)
    notifier
Sources disagree

1 contradiction resolved by the scoring engine

Only low-trust / heuristic engines flagged this file
1 engine from the heuristic / generic-AI set flagged it. No tier-1 engine agreed.
Verdict treated these as likely false positives.
Runtime behaviour

What this file did when executed

This file was detonated in 1 sandbox and its runtime behaviour was observed.

MITRE ATT&CK
35

Adversary techniques mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

T1010T1012T1027· Obfuscated codeT1033· Reads user infoT1047T1055· Process injectionT1057· Lists programsT1059· Runs commandsT1071· Remote server (C2)T1082· System reconT1083· Scans your filesT1112T1115T1125T1129· Loads modulesT1134T1202T1203T1222T1485T1486· File encryptionT1497· Sandbox evasionT1518· Checks your AVT1529+11 more
Spawned processes
15
$(unnamed)
"C:\Users\<USER>\Desktop\GrammarlyOnlineSetup.cqaQcz00wmsvapsmin6k03o2.exe"
$(unnamed)
"C:\Windows\Sysnative\curl.exe" -sS --connect-timeout 15 --max-time 300 --retry 1 --retry-delay 3 --retry-connrefused --retry-max-time 360 -w "%{http_code}" --stderr "C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\grammarly-micro\curl-stderr.txt" -o "C…
$(unnamed)
"C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\grammarly-micro\GrammarlyInstaller.cqaQcz00wmsvapsmin6k03o2.exe" /launch-source=micro
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
$(unnamed)
"C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Grammarly\DesktopIntegrations\Grammarly.Desktop.exe" new-version-v2 onboarding
$(unnamed)
tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq Grammarly.Desktop.exe"
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\services.exe
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe -k NetworkService -p
+7 more processes captured.
Network activity
28
IP addresses14
  • 54.175.123.242
  • 100.24.238.212
  • 52.205.175.213
  • 18.161.134.40
  • 100.24.81.88
  • 150.171.28.10
  • 98.86.205.215
  • 98.90.16.77
  • 52.0.26.200
  • 150.171.27.11
+4 more
URLs14
  • https://win-extension.femetrics.grammarly.io/import
  • https://in.grammarly.com/v1/events/ingestion_front_end?datasetName=installer
  • https://f-log-win-extension.grammarly.io/logv2?extended=0
  • https://download-windows.grammarly.com/GrammarlyInstaller.exe
  • https://bat.bing.com/action/0?sr=1.000000&et=windows-sdk-w32_1.3.6&ver=2.4&evt=custom&ti=247009686&sh=1050&vid=e622e40f510b476da83fff17da884595&sw=1400&ea=launch
  • https://bat.bing.com/action/0?sr=1.000000&et=windows-sdk-w32_1.3.6&ver=2.4&evt=custom&ti=247009686&sh=1050&vid=e622e40f510b476da83fff17da884595&sw=1400&ea=activation
+8 more
Filesystem & mutexes
38
Files written15
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsxC4B8.tmp
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsnC4C9.tmp\System.dll
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\grammarly-micro\micro-installer.log
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsnC4C9.tmp\Banner.dll
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsnC4C9.tmp\nsExec.dll
+10 more
Files deleted15
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsnC4C9.tmp\Banner.dll
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsnC4C9.tmp\nsExec.dll
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsnC4C9.tmp\System.dll
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsnC4C9.tmp\
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsl99.tmp\NScurl.dll
+10 more
Mutexes created8
  • grammarly.desktop.installer-6e9b97a3-dfe7-4a91-afbe-8e51f7be6d6c
  • cversions.3.m
  • Global\.net memory cache 4.0
  • com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.SingleInstance
  • Local\ChromeProcessSingletonStartup!
+3 more
Dropped payload

Files this sample writes at runtime

This file drops 10 children at runtime. None are currently flagged malicious in our cache.

10 unseen
  • 5748e60942c4a7f2e2563df5a4Never scanned
    never seen before
  • c1188ade07520b2f42240ec500Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 4820bebf9970fac5cc8be4d97dNever scanned
    never seen before
  • fbcfe23a2ecb82b7100cdc0f2dNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 4dabe379aa7380a8e5b989db18Never scanned
    never seen before
  • b121689861b506dbc9c31c00bbNever scanned
    never seen before
  • da3f122d19f811a0ee68fde700Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 318b502c9916b709ad9ce972e0Never scanned
    never seen before
  • d43ddec15370d5b6be6b103f00Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 25b58f05de7756ca0ea6929fd2Never scanned
    never seen before
No researcher-database hits
External threat-intel sources were not collected for this scan.
Signature matches

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.

3 synthesis
MITRE ATT&CK profile
Defense evasion× 1Cred access× 1C2× 1
MalwareTips synthesis rules
Our own detection rules, applied to the scan data and sandbox behaviour
  • ProcessInjectionhigh

    MITRE T1055 (Process Injection) observed — CreateRemoteThread / APC / reflective-DLL injection. The payload is being smuggled into a legitimate process to bypass AV hooks.

    Evidence
    C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
  • CredentialDumpermedium

    Sandbox observed process activity targeting LSASS (Windows credential store). Legitimate software has no business reading LSASS memory — this is Mimikatz-shape behaviour.

    Evidence
    C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe
  • DirectIpC2medium

    Sample contacted 14 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.

    Evidence
    54.175.123.242 · 100.24.238.212 · 52.205.175.213
Antivirus engine breakdown

1 detection across 74 engines

1 malicious0 suspicious73 clean
Tier-117 engines
0flag
Top commercial AVs (low FP rate)
Tier-240 engines
0flag
Mainstream engines with mixed FP rates
Low-trust17 engines
1flag
Heuristic / generic-AI engines (high FP rate)
VBA32
malicious
suspected of Trojan.Notifier.gen
Hash 701c9a0330f3… cross-referenced against 74 AV engines via our AV network.
PE forensics

Section entropy & packers

Section-level entropy and packer detection from the PE header. Nothing suspicious here — entropy is within the normal range for unpacked code.

ent 7.94Unpacked
Section entropy5 sections
.text
6.45
.rdata
5.10
.data
4.12
.ndata
0.00
.rsrc
5.20
0.0Packed threshold 7.28.0
Prevalence

How widely this file has been seen

Moderate prevalence — neither rare nor common. No strong prior applies.

Medium
Unique uploaders
41
Moderate upload volume.
Total submissions
43
Includes repeat uploads by the same source.
First seen
14d ago
Jun 29, 2026
Prevalence quadrant
Rare · New
Targeted malware lives here
Common · New
Just-released software
Rare · Old
Niche or internal tooling
Common · Old
Trusted legitimate binaries
File identity

Forensic fingerprint

File biography
First seen (VT)
6/29/2026, 8:29:23 AM
First seen (MalwareBazaar)
Last analysis (VT)
7/11/2026, 3:44:39 PM
Scanned here
7/13/2026, 1:56:39 PM
File name
GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.exe
Size
95.5 KB
MIME type
(unknown)
Detected type
Win32 EXE
SHA-256
701c9a0330f3833e4a82712cf92dbe4e76a9a05e412dfdad25af2900150da518
MD5
d147b251173d360e8885bc605e81f2ee
SHA-1
6e91519bc115e0723de7c16d666a81e9f5fa78c5
PE imphash
46ce5c12b293febbeb513b196aa7f843
First seen (VT)
6/29/2026, 8:29:23 AM
Last analysis (VT)
7/11/2026, 3:44:39 PM
First scan (MalwareTips)
7/13/2026, 1:56:39 PM
Last scan (MalwareTips)
7/13/2026, 1:56:39 PM
Code signer
Grammarlyverified
Behavior tags
long-sleepspeexedetect-debug-environmentsignedoverlay
Frequently asked

Safety FAQ

Common questions about GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.exe, answered from the scan data above.

  • GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.exe appears safe. 73 of 74 antivirus engines report it clean, with only 1 low-confidence detection that read as false positives. It carries a verified digital signature from Grammarly. 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.
  • GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.exe is a Windows executable program, about 96 KB. Our analysis found no threat indicators for it. It carries a verified digital signature from Grammarly. A file's name can be reused by different files, so we identify it by its cryptographic hash (below).
  • 1 of 74 antivirus engines flagged GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.exe, 1 of them as outright malicious. A small number of detections can include false positives, so we weigh which engines flagged it and what else the file does, not just the raw count.
  • Yes — GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.exe carries a valid digital signature from Grammarly, 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 GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.exe is 701c9a0330f3833e4a82712cf92dbe4e76a9a05e412dfdad25af2900150da518, and its MD5 is d147b251173d360e8885bc605e81f2ee. 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 — GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.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 July 13, 2026. Because a file's hash never changes, the identity of GrammarlyOnlineSetup.e5J0Ova0tvcjatj3dsji0602.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.
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.