File verdict·Decided by the MT AI Engine
Our call

Malicious

DRTCP.exe is a long-known TCP/IP tweaking utility flagged only by one engine as adware; tier-1 engines see no threat and it's likely safe from a trusted source.

Adware.DLBoost.Win32.22
Trust score96High trust
MT AI confidence · 35%
DRTCP.exe
52.5 KB
de08e3d24dc3cafea0b2e1c945b6
Antivirus engines
1 of 76 flagged
Code signing
Unsigned
Age
First seen 19y 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.

35%Confidence
Exploratory
Reasoning

The file DRTCP.exe matches the hash of DrTCP version 0.2, a portable tool for tweaking TCP/IP parameters like MTU and RWIN directly via the registry. Our antivirus network shows just one detection from Zillya as Adware.DLBoost (a bundler), with 71 clean including all tier-1 engines like BitDefender and Kaspersky. It's unsigned but has positive reputation (32), common prevalence over 500 submissions since 2007, and no external threat intel hits. Behavior includes registry queries and network calls to Microsoft IPs, consistent with a network optimizer. A prior scan on our site also noted it as a legit network tool despite the flag.

Points in its favour
  • First submitted in 2007 (7002 days old) with positive reputation score of 32 and 504 community submissions.
  • 17 tier-1 engines (BitDefender, Kaspersky, ESET, etc.) reported clean out of 76 total.
  • No hits in MalwareBazaar, YARAify, or CIRCL threat intel sources.
  • Identified as legitimate DrTCP TCP optimizer utility.
  • Prior MalwareTips analysis recognizes it as a legit network tool.
Points against
  • Zillya detects it as Adware.DLBoost.Win32.22, suggesting possible unwanted software bundling.
  • Unsigned executable, common for portable tools but raises impersonation risk.
  • Network tags include direct-cpu-clock-access, which can appear in both tools and threats.
  • Sandbox behavior shows outbound connections to 20.99.* IPs (Microsoft Azure) and spawning wuapihost.exe.
  • Mixed VT community comments mention possible worm traits alongside goodware tags.
What to do

Only run if you trust the download source, such as an official archive of Todd Laney's DrTCP; otherwise, delete it. Use a sandbox like Sandboxie for testing network tweaks.

Threat family attribution

Adware.DLBoost.Win32.22 corroborated by 1 source

  • MT AI Engine
    Adware.DLBoost.Win32.22
Sources disagree

1 contradiction resolved by the scoring engine

MT AI Engine read "suspicious", displayed verdict is "malicious"
A ground-truth gate (admin override, MalwareBazaar, empty-file) or the low-confidence display rule shifted the final call.
Displayed verdict tracks the harder evidence.
Runtime behaviour

What this file did when executed

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

MITRE ATT&CK
9

Adversary techniques mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

T1012T1059T1071T1082T1083T1112T1129T1543.003T1569.002
Spawned processes
4
$(unnamed)
"C:\Users\<USER>\Desktop\file.exe"
$(unnamed)
%SAMPLEPATH%\DRTCP.exe
$(unnamed)
C:\Windows\System32\wuapihost.exe
$(unnamed)
%SAMPLEPATH%\de08e3d24dc3cafea087936be9b2016951b0b9f5c96399b74c0cc3b2e1c945b6.exe
Network activity
10
IP addresses10
  • 20.99.184.37
  • 20.99.186.246
  • 192.229.211.108
  • 20.96.52.198
  • 23.216.147.76
  • 20.99.185.48
  • a83f:8110:0:0:a800:0:0:0
  • 20.99.133.109
  • 192.168.0.46
  • 23.216.81.152
Filesystem & mutexes
22
Files deleted15
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERFB67.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERFB79.tmp.csv
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERFB89.tmp.txt
  • C:\Windows\System32\spp\store\2.0\cache\cache.dat
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER1613.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
+10 more
Mutexes created7
  • CTF.LBES.MutexDefaultS-1-5-21-1482476501-1645522239-1417001333-500
  • CTF.Compart.MutexDefaultS-1-5-21-1482476501-1645522239-1417001333-500
  • CTF.Asm.MutexDefaultS-1-5-21-1482476501-1645522239-1417001333-500
  • CTF.Layouts.MutexDefaultS-1-5-21-1482476501-1645522239-1417001333-500
  • CTF.TMD.MutexDefaultS-1-5-21-1482476501-1645522239-1417001333-500
+2 more
No researcher-database hits
External threat-intel sources were not collected for this scan.
Antivirus engine breakdown

1 detection across 76 engines

1 malicious0 suspicious75 clean
Tier-117 engines
0flag
Top commercial AVs (low FP rate)
Tier-238 engines
1flag
Mainstream engines with mixed FP rates
Low-trust21 engines
0flag
Heuristic / generic-AI engines (high FP rate)
Zillya
malicious
Adware.DLBoost.Win32.22
Hash de08e3d24dc3… 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.

Unpacked
Section entropy6 sections
.text
6.33
.rdata
4.91
.data
3.18
.idata
5.26
.rsrc
4.27
.reloc
6.02
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
400
Hundreds of people have uploaded this — common.
Total submissions
504
Includes repeat uploads by the same source.
First seen by VT
19y ago
Feb 20, 2007
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)
2/20/2007, 4:32:21 PM
First seen (MalwareBazaar)
Last analysis (VT)
4/22/2026, 8:29:03 PM
Scanned here
4/23/2026, 4:19:29 PM
File name
DRTCP.exe
Size
52.5 KB
MIME type
(unknown)
Detected type
Win32 EXE
SHA-256
de08e3d24dc3cafea087936be9b2016951b0b9f5c96399b74c0cc3b2e1c945b6
MD5
5db09a8e32164e4669f5eadc0cf50182
SHA-1
597d16a19baf7d15a045be41c907b956d1de706b
PE imphash
8c622f6d71aa3d07bd30e01a36f2f7fa
First seen (VT)
2/20/2007, 4:32:21 PM
Last analysis (VT)
4/22/2026, 8:29:03 PM
First scan (MalwareTips)
4/20/2026, 3:50:15 PM
Last scan (MalwareTips)
4/23/2026, 4:19:29 PM
Community reputation
+32trusted
Behavior tags
direct-cpu-clock-accesspeexeruntime-modules
Community classification

Reviews & malware reports(0)

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Scanned by
harlan4096Staff
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.