File scan report

Verdict Suspicious

Analyzed , 8 days ago

Is ZEDZONE.exe.bak safe? Treat it as suspicious.

Three generic engine alerts conflict with uneventful sandbox execution and an identified Steam DRM wrapper, but the unsigned, executable warrants caution.

Read the whole reasonShow less

Why Suspicious? 3 antivirus engines flag it, but no major engine agrees; nothing else confirms it.

Limited evidence · One sign points to a problem; nothing else confirms it.

Don't run it until you know where it came from

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

  1. Don't run it unless you're sure where it came from.

  2. Check where you got it: an unexpected attachment, a link someone sent you or a re-upload is a red flag.

  3. 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

  1. 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.

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

3 of 70 flagged

  • Flagged 3
  • No detection 67
  • No result 5
FileZEDZONE.exe.bak900.7 kBSHA-256 9af4ef7aaf1c…10d21f
  • Code signing Unsigned
  • Test run Completed
  • First seen 8d ago
3 of the 70 antivirus engines that checked it flag it, including Deep Instinct and Cylance.

Chapter 02

Why we think so

3 points against it and 5 in its favour, checked against the scan evidence.

MT AI Engine · Verdict analysis

The reasoning behind this verdict

Analyst conclusion

Only 3 of the 70 antivirus engines that checked it flagged the executable, none of them major, and no detector identified a malware family. Sandbox execution found no high-risk activity, while Steam DRM plausibly explains the encrypted sections; however, the file is unsigned and so its provenance remains uncertain.

Where this verdict could be wrong2 caveats
  • Three engines raised generic machine-learning detections, including one mid-tier engine, so the alerts cannot be dismissed as exclusively less reliable noise.
  • The executable is unsigned and has only just been observed, leaving little publisher or reputation history to support the benign indicators.

These are the assessment's weak points. If you believe one applies to your file, report the verdict and we'll re-review it.

6 sources checked · all complete. See every source

Chapter 03

What it did in our test

It ran in 3 isolated tests; no test environment rated what it did as risky.

Test run summary

Capture complete
  • 3isolated sandbox runs
  • 7sandbox rule tags
  • 1spawned processes
  • 0network contacts
  • 0filesystem & 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 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.

Seen in the test runWorked out from other results
  1. Input file

    The submitted object

    1
    1. Evidence 1 of 2: FileSeen in the test run

      ZEDZONE.exe.bak

      9af4ef7aaf1c48272a033039df0fe3dd7a397e1de5f5769adceeeffa9810d21f

      Uploaded file
  2. Processes

    What ran

    1
    1. Evidence 2 of 2: ProcessSeen in the test run

      file.exe

      "C:\Users\user\Desktop\file.exe"

      Test run

2 facts from the test run. See the full activity list.

Chapter 04

Technical details

3 of the 70 antivirus engines that checked it flag it; no publisher signature.

Sources checked

Every check behind this verdict

6 sources checked · all complete. Complete means the check returned a usable result; it does not mean the file is safe.

SourceStatusResultChecked
Antivirus enginesVirusTotal · 75 enginesCompleteRisk signal: 3 of 70 engines flagged it · 5 gave no result Details for antivirus engines
Sandbox runVirusTotal sandboxes · CAPA, CAPE Sandbox, ZenboxComplete3 runs: 1 clean, 2 without a verdict Details for sandbox run
Contacted hostsMalwareTips URL scannerComplete1 contacted host checked
Signature rulesYARAify community rules + MalwareTips rulesCompleteNo rule matched
Malware sample databaseabuse.ch MalwareBazaarCompleteNot listed
Known-software referenceCIRCL hashlookupCompleteNo match

Engines that flagged it 3

  • CylanceUnsafe
  • DeepInstinctMALICIOUS
  • Trapminesuspicious.low.ml.score

File fingerprint

Last analyzed
Oct 18, 2026, 4:53 PM UTC
SHA-256
9af4ef7aaf1c48272a033039df0fe3dd7a397e1de5f5769adceeeffa9810d21f
SHA-1
4b1b45bddcd2bd1e85092ef2a70bcf283c75f5fd
MD5
cd0f7fcef20ffb717f0d1facfd315f3c

About this file

ZEDZONE.exe.bak is a Win32 EXE file of 900.7 kB.

Type and size
Win32 EXE · 900.7 kB
Signer
UnsignedNo code signature.
First seen
Oct 18, 2026On VirusTotal.
Submitted by
2 distinct sourcesRarely seen: few people have submitted this exact file.
Packer
Possibly packedPacking hides code; legitimate installers use it too.
Entropy
6.62 of 8A code section is highly compressed or encrypted.

First scanned

Chapter 05

Questions & answers

Short answers to the 6 questions people ask most about this file.

Is ZEDZONE.exe.bak safe, or is it malware?
ZEDZONE.exe.bak is rated Suspicious: some signs point to a problem, but nothing confirms it is harmful. 3 of the 70 antivirus engines that checked it flag it. Don't run it unless you're sure where it came from. If you need the program, download it again from the publisher's own website.
What is ZEDZONE.exe.bak?
ZEDZONE.exe.bak is a Windows program, about 900.7 kB. It carries no version information saying what it is or who made it. VirusTotal first saw it on Oct 18, 2026.
How many antivirus engines detected ZEDZONE.exe.bak?
3 of the 70 antivirus engines that checked it flag ZEDZONE.exe.bak, including Deep Instinct and Cylance. We weigh which engines flagged it and what else the scan found, not just the count.
I already downloaded and ran ZEDZONE.exe.bak — what should I do?
No infection is confirmed: the rating is a caution, not a malware finding. 1) Check where it came from. If you can't confirm the source, delete it. 2) Run a full scan with your security software. 3) If the scan finds something, follow its removal steps and change passwords you typed on the device since then.
What is the SHA-256 hash of ZEDZONE.exe.bak?
The SHA-256 fingerprint of ZEDZONE.exe.bak is 9af4ef7aaf1c48272a033039df0fe3dd7a397e1de5f5769adceeeffa9810d21f, and its MD5 is cd0f7fcef20ffb717f0d1facfd315f3c. Two files with the same SHA-256 are identical, so use it to check you have exactly this file, not just one with the same name.
How up to date is this analysis of ZEDZONE.exe.bak?
This report reflects the scan on Oct 18, 2026. A file's fingerprint never changes, but antivirus engines keep learning, so a rating can change later. To get a newer result, scan the file again: we refresh the antivirus results when the saved ones are out of date.
Chapter 06

Community

Member reviews and reports for this exact file hash.

Recent reports on other files with the same rating.

All file reports
This report and its SHA-256 fingerprint are public, so the next person who checks the same file gets an instant answer; documents and images are listed by type instead of their file name. A file we had not seen before is uploaded to VirusTotal, whose security partners and subscribers can download it; MalwareTips deletes its own copy after the scan. If you ran this file and are worried, scan your device with up-to-date security software.