File verdict·Decided by the MT AI Engine
Our call

Safe

Unsigned but widely submitted Windows executable matching a known Microsoft mspaint path with zero engine detections.

Trust score82Moderate trust
MSPAINT.EXE
965.0 KB
94aa32a2c9c1d2db78b55fdd5709
Antivirus engines
0 of 75 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.

78%Confidence
High
Reasoning

The complete absence of malicious detections across tier-1 and tier-2 engines combined with a CIRCL hit pointing to a Microsoft WinSxS mspaint.exe location strongly indicates a legitimate system file. While the binary is unsigned and exhibits direct-IP contacts plus credential-dumping MITRE mappings, these signals are outweighed by the 16 tier-1 clean reports and common_old prevalence. No dropped malicious children or malicious sandbox consensus exist. The file therefore aligns with a clean classification despite minor behavioural anomalies.

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: 0 malicious detections out of 75 total (16 tier-1 clean)

  2. externalIntel.circl.hit=true with path Windows/WinSxS/amd64_microsoft-windows-mspaint_.../mspaint.exe

  3. prevalence.classification=common_old (351 sources, 513 submissions)

  4. behaviour.hasMaliciousSandboxVerdict=false and droppedChildren.hasMaliciousChild=false

Points in its favour
  • Zero malicious engine detections
  • CIRCL match to known Microsoft mspaint.exe path
  • Common_old prevalence with hundreds of submissions
  • No malicious dropped children or sandbox verdicts
Points against
  • Unsigned binary
  • Direct-IP network contacts without DNS
  • MITRE T1003 and T1547.001 observed in sandbox
What to do

Allow the file if located in standard Windows directories; otherwise replace it from official Microsoft sources.

Runtime behaviour

What this file did when executed

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

MITRE ATT&CK
18

Adversary techniques mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

T1003T1012T1027T1036T1056.001T1057T1071T1082T1083T1112T1113T1129T1222T1497.002T1518T1547.001T1614T1614.001
Spawned processes
11
$(unnamed)
"C:\Users\<USER>\Desktop\MSPAINT.EXE"
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\services.exe
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k imgsvc
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k LocalSystemNetworkRestricted -p -s DeviceAssociationService
$(unnamed)
%SAMPLEPATH%\MSPAINT.EXE
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\System32\wuapihost.exe
$(unnamed)
%SAMPLEPATH%\94aa32a2c9c1d2db78318d9c68262c2f834abe26b6e9a661700324b55fdd5709.exe
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\System32\UI0Detect.exe
+3 more processes captured.
Network activity
20
IP addresses20
  • 74.125.69.94
  • 204.79.197.203
  • 209.197.3.8
  • 192.168.0.84
  • a83f:8110:0:0:1b00:100:2800:0
  • a83f:8110:8102:0:f801:67a3:8102:0
  • 23.216.147.76
  • 20.62.24.77
  • a83f:8110:0:0:1400:1400:2800:3800
  • 23.216.147.64
+10 more
Filesystem & mutexes
20
Files written3
  • C:\Windows\debug\WIA\wiatrace.log
  • C:\Windows\Debug\WIA
  • C:\Windows\Debug\WIA\wiatrace.log
Files deleted15
  • C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Crypto\Keys\de7cf8a7901d2ad13e5c67c29e5d1662_cbbb49d6-b7ff-44ca-aba5-8a5e250d4d42
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WEREC05.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERED0F.tmp.csv
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERED6E.tmp.txt
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER2546.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
+10 more
Mutexes created2
  • Global\WIATRACE_MUTEX
  • \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\Global\WIATRACE_MUTEX
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
  • 91057b27acd3a65af4e771dcefNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 4cb7bac71da39bc46e40c8aba2Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 1864150a191097714a3d27a78aNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 2f4330caacfdb8cabde1f0a5c8Never scanned
    never seen before
  • edc8dc0f4532b08f74a4f8e90cNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 2575699810fbe4efbc8cc47ddbNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 51010046f60b2cff329ccc6cbdNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 4c6e4af9922a05c7ddb6bdb634Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 0805e87465808e076afb12fa4aNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 552d7566e3f6f765e269790b22Never scanned
    never seen before
External threat intelligence

1 corroborating signal from researcher-curated sources

CIRCL hashlookup HIT·known-good reference DB·trust 50/100View on CIRCL
CIRCL-Microsoft-VM· Windows/WinSxS/amd64_microsoft-windows-mspaint_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.19041.746_none_6c16d1714d60fddf/mspaint.exe
Cross-referenced against MalwareBazaar (abuse.ch), YARAify, and the CIRCL hashlookup reference DB.
Signature matches

YARA + heuristic rules that fired

One or more medium-severity heuristic rules matched. Not definitive, but the patterns match known malware behaviour.

2 synthesis
MITRE ATT&CK profile
Cred access× 1C2× 1
MalwareTips synthesis rules
Our heuristics on VT data + sandbox behaviour
  • CredentialDumpermedium

    MITRE T1003 (OS Credential Dumping) mapped by at least one sandbox run.

  • DirectIpC2medium

    Sample 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.

    Evidence
    74.125.69.94 · 204.79.197.203 · 209.197.3.8
Antivirus engine breakdown

0 detections across 75 engines

0 malicious0 suspicious75 clean
Tier-117 engines
0flag
Top commercial AVs (low FP rate)
Tier-241 engines
0flag
Mainstream engines with mixed FP rates
Low-trust17 engines
0flag
Heuristic / generic-AI engines (high FP rate)
All 75 engines report this file as clean.
Hash 94aa32a2c9c1… cross-referenced against 75 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.

Unpacked
Section entropy7 sections
.text
6.25
.rdata
4.64
.data
4.60
.pdata
5.89
.didat
3.16
.rsrc
4.13
.reloc
5.43
0.0Packed threshold 7.28.0
Prevalence

How often this file shows up in the wild

Widely seen in the wild for a long time. High prior this is legitimate; isolated detections on common-old files are usually false positives.

Common & old
Unique uploaders
351
Hundreds of people have uploaded this — common.
Total submissions
513
Includes repeat uploads by the same source.
First seen by VT
5y ago
Jan 13, 2021
Prevalence quadrant
Rare · New
Targeted malware lives here
Common · New
Just-released software
Rare · Old
Niche or internal tooling
here
Common · Old
Trusted legitimate binaries
File identity

Forensic fingerprint

File biography
First seen (VT)
1/13/2021, 12:04:26 AM
First seen (MalwareBazaar)
Last analysis (VT)
6/29/2026, 12:42:24 AM
Scanned here
7/9/2026, 5:24:25 AM
File name
MSPAINT.EXE
Size
965.0 KB
MIME type
(unknown)
Detected type
Win32 EXE
SHA-256
94aa32a2c9c1d2db78318d9c68262c2f834abe26b6e9a661700324b55fdd5709
MD5
f221a4ccafec690101c59f726c95b646
SHA-1
2098e4b62eaab213cbee73ba40fe4f1b8901a782
PE imphash
d90e4d192f94e7240c400da8fc2154d7
First seen (VT)
1/13/2021, 12:04:26 AM
Last analysis (VT)
6/29/2026, 12:42:24 AM
First scan (MalwareTips)
7/9/2026, 5:24:25 AM
Last scan (MalwareTips)
7/9/2026, 5:24:25 AM
Community reputation
+3trusted
Behavior tags
legitassemblypeexedetect-debug-environment64bitsknown-distributor
Community classification

Reviews & malware reports(0)

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