File verdict·Decided by the MT AI Engine
Our call

Malicious

Unsigned MSI installer showing process injection, LSASS access, direct-IP C2 and multiple YARA detections consistent with RustyStealer.

rustystealer
Trust score12Critical
MT AI confidence · 78%
LiquidLauncher_0.5.0_x64_en-US.msi
9.2 MB
ac86ca5150d64af0b59e920733c1
Antivirus engines
0 of 74 flagged
Code signing
Unsigned
Age
First seen 1y 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

Zero engine detections normally favour a safe verdict, but the sandbox recorded three offensive MITRE techniques and direct-IP C2 traffic. Six YARA rules fired, including debugger checks and obfuscation patterns. Multiple independent researcher comments explicitly label the sample RustyStealer and link it to MalwareBazaar. The file is unsigned and drops an executable plus persistence artefacts. These signals together produce a malicious classification despite the engine silence.

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.malicious=0 and engines.tier1Malicious=0 across 62 reporting engines

  2. externalIntel.yaraify.ruleCount=6 with rules DebuggerCheck__API, Sus_Obf_Enc_Spoof_Hide_PE, upxHook

  3. behaviour.offensiveTechniques includes T1055, T1543.003, T1548 and contactedIps 150.171.22.17, 93.186.135.80

  4. communityComments contain explicit RustyStealer family annotations and MalwareBazaar links

  5. prevalence.classification=common_old with 9477 submissions

Points in its favour
  • Zero engine detections
  • Common_old prevalence with thousands of submissions
  • No malicious dropped children
Points against
  • Process injection into svchost.exe
  • Direct IP contact bypassing DNS reputation
  • LSASS memory access observed
  • Multiple YARA rules for obfuscation and debugger evasion
  • Researcher consensus on RustyStealer family
What to do

Treat the file as malicious and block or remove it; the behavioural and YARA evidence outweighs the clean engine results.

Threat family attribution

DebuggerCheck API corroborated by 2 sources

  • 6 YARA rules
    DebuggerCheck__API, NET, Sus_Obf_Enc_Spoof_Hide_PE
  • MT AI Engine
    rustystealer
Runtime behaviour

What this file did when executed

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

MITRE ATT&CK
13

Adversary techniques mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

T1036T1055T1071T1082T1083T1089T1091T1095T1120T1129T1543.003T1548T1574.002
Spawned processes
14
$(unnamed)
"C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe" /I "C:\Users\<USER>\Desktop\installer.msi" /qb ACCEPTEULA=1 LicenseAccepted=1
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\services.exe
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe /V
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe -k NetworkService -p
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k UnistackSvcGroup
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe -k LocalSystemNetworkRestricted -p -s StorSvc
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k LocalService -s W32Time
+6 more processes captured.
Network activity
4
IP addresses2
  • 150.171.22.17
  • 93.186.135.80
URLs2
  • http://cacerts.digicert.com/DigiCertGlobalRootG2.crt
  • http://msedge.f.tlu.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/0c4084f3-1bed-4246-b8ed-206ccbe60e3c?P1=1754072141&P2=404&P3=2&P4=YWHjm+6z7MOPIf597feSbOWCurKGWP+6G49g1m6lr14e2C3l9ofyr2ijjOBmKm0wt3dn2HQDKYk2JYN23ofq2w==
Filesystem & mutexes
38
Files written15
  • C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen.log
  • C:\Windows\Temp\~DFB2F0C3C9E7239F29.TMP
  • C:\Windows\Temp\~DF2FC5AD4ACEC0370D.TMP
  • C:\Windows\Temp\~DF9EFF7642AABBB1BD.TMP
  • C:\Windows\Temp\~DF1648FCF70DA30D77.TMP
+10 more
Files deleted13
  • C:\Config.Msi\CMPEA31.tmp
  • C:\Config.Msi
  • C:\Windows\Installer\e467.msi
  • C:\Config.Msi\CMPEE96.tmp
  • C:\Config.Msi\e466.rbs
+8 more
Mutexes created10
  • Global\_MSIExecute
  • Local\MSCTF.Asm.MutexDefault1
  • \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\Global\_MSIExecute
  • \BaseNamedObjects\Local\SM0:1616:304:WilStaging_02
  • \BaseNamedObjects\Local\SM0:1616:120:WilError_03
+5 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
  • c5ae2be40fc540c96371141ec5Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 9c595a347c0157e31ac9d325d1Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 2026f1aa8b8edbeca9865f2f59Never scanned
    never seen before
  • a428891ad555debdf73995249aNever scanned
    never seen before
  • c3daa73d6bca245f683dec90b6Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 10d3274b67d28275461e9c3e2eNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 3ea9329a7824a9f979a4503841Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 71354da209a1fad06a3fa45a48Never scanned
    never seen before
  • ee562340edef4b0bda92193fafNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 9bd19eb5493a6268b1bcdb7652Never scanned
    never seen before
External threat intelligence

1 corroborating signal from researcher-curated sources

YARAify HIT·6 community rules matchedView on YARAify
  • DebuggerCheck__API
  • NETby malware-lu
  • Sus_Obf_Enc_Spoof_Hide_PEby XiAnzheng
    Check for Overlay, Obfuscating, Encrypting, Spoofing, Hiding, or Entropy Technique(can create FP)
  • upxHookby @r3dbU7z
    Detect artifacts from 'upxHook' - modification of UPX packer
  • maldoc_find_kernel32_base_method_1by Didier Stevens (https://DidierStevens.com)
Cross-referenced against MalwareBazaar (abuse.ch), YARAify, and the CIRCL hashlookup reference DB.
Signature matches

YARA + heuristic rules that fired

A researcher-curated or high-severity heuristic rule matched this sample. These rules target specific malware families and are near-definitive.

5 YARAify3 synthesis
MITRE ATT&CK profile
Defense evasion× 1Cred access× 1C2× 1
YARAify (community)
Researcher-authored rules via abuse.ch
  • DebuggerCheck__API
  • NET
  • Sus_Obf_Enc_Spoof_Hide_PE
  • upxHook
  • maldoc_find_kernel32_base_method_1
MalwareTips synthesis rules
Our heuristics on VT data + 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\System32\svchost.exe -k NetworkService -p
  • 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 2 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
    150.171.22.17 · 93.186.135.80
Antivirus engine breakdown

0 detections across 74 engines

0 malicious0 suspicious74 clean
Tier-117 engines
0flag
Top commercial AVs (low FP rate)
Tier-238 engines
0flag
Mainstream engines with mixed FP rates
Low-trust19 engines
0flag
Heuristic / generic-AI engines (high FP rate)
All 74 engines report this file as clean.
Hash ac86ca5150d6… cross-referenced against 74 AV engines via our AV network.
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
3,676
Hundreds of people have uploaded this — common.
Total submissions
9,477
Includes repeat uploads by the same source.
First seen by VT
1y ago
May 20, 2025
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)
5/20/2025, 11:50:12 PM
First seen (MalwareBazaar)
Last analysis (VT)
7/3/2026, 8:07:10 AM
Scanned here
7/3/2026, 11:26:55 AM
File name
LiquidLauncher_0.5.0_x64_en-US.msi
Size
9.16 MB
MIME type
(unknown)
Detected type
Windows Installer
SHA-256
ac86ca5150d64af0b55e22f65adac3cfd13aac88868085fcea3c019e920733c1
MD5
10afd2525f22a135856a24161501160d
SHA-1
61bb7449f2bb21525f6facc740d9176dec3f5107
First seen (VT)
5/20/2025, 11:50:12 PM
Last analysis (VT)
7/3/2026, 8:07:10 AM
First scan (MalwareTips)
7/3/2026, 11:26:55 AM
Last scan (MalwareTips)
7/3/2026, 11:26:55 AM
Community reputation
-4flagged
Behavior tags
msichecks-usb-busdetect-debug-environment
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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