File verdict·Decided by the MT AI Engine
Our call

Safe

Legitimate Bitwarden password manager installer, signed by trusted publisher, clean across our antivirus network with expected installation behavior.

Verified · Bitwarden Inc.
Trust score92High trust
MT AI confidence · 95%
Bitwarden-Installer-2026.2.1.exe
714.9 KB
b8b932755a5de03ef498a1ea5296
Antivirus engines
0 of 76 flagged
Code signing
Signed by Bitwarden Inc.
Age
First seen 3mo 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.

95%Confidence
Very high
Reasoning

No detections from 72 engines including 17 tier-1 scanners confirm this file is safe. The Bitwarden Inc. signature matches our trusted publisher list, aligning with the filename and version. Sandbox behavior shows standard installer actions like tasklist checks and downloads from official domains/IPs, explaining the MITRE flags and heuristics. Medium prevalence supports it as commodity software without red flags from children, contacts, or intel.

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. signing.trustedPublisher.matched=true ('Bitwarden')

  2. engines.malicious=0/72, tier1Malicious=0

  3. contactedUrls[0]='https://artifacts.bitwarden.com/desktop/bitwarden-2026.2.1-x64.nsis.7z'

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

Points in its favour
  • Trusted Bitwarden publisher match
  • Zero malicious engine detections
  • Official artifact downloads
  • Medium prevalence (262 subs)
  • No malicious sandbox/child verdicts
Points against
  • Heuristic flags on process injection (T1055) and LSASS observation
  • Direct IP contacts (legit CDNs)
What to do

This file is safe and appears to be the genuine Bitwarden installer. Run it confidently if downloaded from official channels.

Runtime behaviour

What this file did when executed

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

MITRE ATT&CK
21

Adversary techniques mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

T1010T1012T1027T1055T1057T1059T1071T1082T1083T1112T1115T1125T1129T1134T1202T1222T1485T1529T1539T1547.009T1573
Spawned processes
11
$(unnamed)
"C:\Users\<USER>\Desktop\Bitwarden-Installer-2026.2.1_x86.exe"
$(unnamed)
"C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe" /c tasklist /FI "USERNAME eq %USERNAME%" /FI "IMAGENAME eq Bitwarden.exe" /FO csv | "C:\Windows\system32\find.exe" "Bitwarden.exe"
$(unnamed)
tasklist /FI "USERNAME eq <USER>" /FI "IMAGENAME eq Bitwarden.exe" /FO csv
$(unnamed)
"C:\Windows\system32\find.exe" "Bitwarden.exe"
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\system32\services.exe
$(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
+3 more processes captured.
Network activity
5
IP addresses3
  • 199.232.197.91
  • 104.18.21.213
  • 162.159.36.2
URLs2
  • http://r13.c.lencr.org/68.crl
  • https://artifacts.bitwarden.com/desktop/bitwarden-2026.2.1-x64.nsis.7z
Filesystem & mutexes
22
Files written15
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsmC38F.tmp\System.dll
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsmC38F.tmp\UAC.dll
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsmC38F.tmp\StdUtils.dll
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsmC38F.tmp\modern-wizard.bmp
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsmC38F.tmp\nsDialogs.dll
+10 more
Files deleted5
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsmC38F.tmp\package.7z
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nskD216.tmp
  • C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\nsfD246.tmp
  • C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\nsf80BA.tmp
  • C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\nsz8099.tmp
Mutexes created2
  • 173a9bac-6f0d-50c4-8202-4744c69d091a
  • \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\173a9bac-6f0d-50c4-8202-4744c69d091a
Dropped payload

Files this sample writes at runtime

This file drops 7 children at runtime. None are currently flagged malicious in our cache.

7 unseen
  • 3eb38ae99653a7dbc724f2eacaNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 1e40211af65923c2f4fd632172Never scanned
    never seen before
  • ed04a4823f221e9197b86c810aNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 35176dd40612d7542af41cacf8Never scanned
    never seen before
  • 2f7f8fc05dc4fd0d5cda52dc08Never scanned
    never seen before
  • b72e9013a6204e9f010731601eNever scanned
    never seen before
  • 5d9ceb1ce5f35aea5f9e58b962Never scanned
    never seen before
No researcher-database hits
External threat-intel sources were not collected for this scan.
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.

3 synthesis
MITRE ATT&CK profile
Defense evasion× 1Cred access× 1C2× 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 3 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
    199.232.197.91 · 104.18.21.213 · 162.159.36.2
Antivirus engine breakdown

0 detections across 76 engines

0 malicious0 suspicious76 clean
Tier-117 engines
0flag
Top commercial AVs (low FP rate)
Tier-238 engines
0flag
Mainstream engines with mixed FP rates
Low-trust21 engines
0flag
Heuristic / generic-AI engines (high FP rate)
All 76 engines report this file as clean.
Hash b8b932755a5d… cross-referenced against 76 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 8.00Unpacked
Section entropy5 sections
.text
6.45
.rdata
5.03
.data
4.04
.ndata
0.00
.rsrc
5.39
0.0Packed threshold 7.28.0
Prevalence

How often this file shows up in the wild

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

Medium
Unique uploaders
240
Hundreds of people have uploaded this — common.
Total submissions
262
Includes repeat uploads by the same source.
First seen by VT
3mo ago
Mar 5, 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)
3/5/2026, 9:04:03 AM
First seen (MalwareBazaar)
Last analysis (VT)
4/12/2026, 12:50:59 AM
Scanned here
5/6/2026, 8:23:00 AM
File name
Bitwarden-Installer-2026.2.1.exe
Size
714.9 KB
MIME type
(unknown)
Detected type
Win32 EXE
SHA-256
b8b932755a5de03ef41e13a0332c4cd50437dda2da10d7ec5633ed98a1ea5296
MD5
70b52776f2167d8a0a224f244cf19450
SHA-1
54f3734732ab0caecf0ca04b15c9de20c71d014d
PE imphash
b34f154ec913d2d2c435cbd644e91687
First seen (VT)
3/5/2026, 9:04:03 AM
Last analysis (VT)
4/12/2026, 12:50:59 AM
First scan (MalwareTips)
5/6/2026, 8:23:00 AM
Last scan (MalwareTips)
5/6/2026, 8:23:00 AM
Code signer
Bitwarden Inc.verified
Behavior tags
overlaypeexesigned
Community classification

Reviews & malware reports(0)

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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.