Safe
Zero detections across 61 engines on an 11-year-old text file with no behavioural or external signals.
bb41fe3db2bf447121…f92df66152The 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.
The complete absence of malicious detections from every engine tier, including 18 tier-1 engines, combined with the file's long history and lack of any behavioural or external intelligence signals, indicates a benign text file. No heuristics fired and no adversarial patterns were detected in the filename or metadata. The unknown file type is consistent with a plain text readme rather than an executable payload.
Each signal cites a concrete token from the evidence the arbiter saw — engine name, MITRE technique, signer string, or an exact count.
engines.malicious=0 with tier1Malicious=0 across 18 tier-1 engines (Avast, AVG, Avira, BitDefender, DrWeb, Emsisoft, ESET-NOD32, F-Secure, Fortinet, GData, Ikarus, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft)
prevalence.classification=medium with firstSubmissionDate=2014-09-29T07:14:46.000Z (4311 days age)
signing.signed=false with no signerStats history
externalIntel.yaraify.ruleCount=0 and externalIntel.circl.hit=false
- Zero engine detections over 9 years
- Medium prevalence with stable history
- No behavioural or external intelligence hits
Treat as a normal text file; open with any standard text viewer.
What to do now
This file looks safe based on everything we checked.
This file is safe to use.
Good habit: only download files from the official website or an app store.
Keep your antivirus and Windows updates switched on so you stay protected.
0 detections across 75 engines
How widely this file has been seen
Moderate prevalence — neither rare nor common. No strong prior applies.
Forensic fingerprint
- File name
- Readme.txt
- Size
- 20.6 KB
- MIME type
- (unknown)
- Detected type
- unknown
- SHA-256
- bb41fe3db2bf447121e19e9d99fde31983b7dbaec37e09a374dcd0f92df66152
- MD5
- c39cecffcdcd529049e694b51e8d5647
- SHA-1
- 6c1bda42f0da18d28aeea7fec86c93355ba7d4c8
- First seen (VT)
- 9/29/2014, 3:14:46 AM
- Last analysis (VT)
- 1/13/2023, 7:10:31 PM
- First scan (MalwareTips)
- 7/19/2026, 8:12:08 AM
- Last scan (MalwareTips)
- 7/19/2026, 8:12:08 AM
Safety FAQ
Common questions about Readme.txt, answered from the scan data above.
- Readme.txt appears safe. 75 of 75 antivirus engines report it clean. As a habit, only open files you downloaded from the official source, since attackers sometimes distribute trojanised copies of legitimate software under the same name.
- Readme.txt is a file, about 21 KB. Our analysis found no threat indicators for it. A file's name can be reused by different files, so we identify it by its cryptographic hash (below).
- None — all 75 antivirus engines we queried report Readme.txt as clean. That's reassuring, though brand-new malware can briefly evade detection before vendors add signatures, so we also weigh the file's behaviour and reputation.
- The SHA-256 hash of Readme.txt is bb41fe3db2bf447121e19e9d99fde31983b7dbaec37e09a374dcd0f92df66152, and its MD5 is c39cecffcdcd529049e694b51e8d5647. 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 — Readme.txt shows no threat indicators. 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 19, 2026. Because a file's hash never changes, the identity of Readme.txt 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.
Reviews & malware reports(0)
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