File verdict·Decided by the MT AI Engine
Our call

Malicious

Unsigned 90 MB executable with tier-1 detections, process injection, and direct-IP contact.

astraea
Trust score15High risk
uploaded-file.exe
86.1 MB
f9206d7014d0b7b93e427b681389
Antivirus engines
11 of 74 flagged
Code signing
Unsigned
Age
First seen 1 day ago
MT AI Engine · Verdict analysis

The 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.

78%Confidence
High
Reasoning

The combination of four tier-1 malicious detections, confirmed process-injection behaviour, and direct-IP C2 without DNS forms a coherent malicious profile. The file is unsigned, only one day old, and carries the popular threat label trojan.astraea/node. While sandbox verdicts were absent and family consensus is weak, the offensive MITRE technique and heuristic triggers outweigh the dissenting signals.

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. engines.tier1Malicious=4 with detections from Avast, AVG, Avira, F-Secure, Ikarus

  2. behaviour.offensiveTechniques=["T1055"] and triggeredHeuristics[0].rule="MalwareTips.Synth.ProcessInjection"

  3. signing.signed=false with file.ageDays=1 and prevalence.classification=medium

  4. contactedIps=["162.159.36.2"] with zero contactedDomains (MalwareTips.Synth.DirectIpC2)

Points in its favour
  • No malicious sandbox verdict recorded
  • No dropped malicious children
  • No prior similar-hash malicious matches
Points against
  • Unsigned executable
  • Process injection (T1055)
  • Direct-IP contact without DNS
  • Recent submission with low reputation
Recommended action

Treat the file as malicious and remove it; avoid execution on any system.

What this file does

What it attempted when executed in an isolated sandbox

  • High concern: Hides inside another running program to evade antivirus.

  • High concern: Talks to a remote server to take commands or send out your data.

  • Moderate concern: Obfuscates or packs its code to avoid detection.

Translated from the file's technical behaviour during analysis. It never ran on your device.

Threat context

How trojans work

A trojan disguises itself as something useful or harmless to trick you into running it. Once open, it does its real job in the background — anything from stealing data to opening a back door or downloading more malware.

Bottom line:The disguise is the whole trick, so a trustworthy-looking name or icon means nothing.

What to do now

This file is dangerous. Treat it as harmful and remove it.

  1. Don't open or run this file. Delete it from your Downloads (or wherever you saved it), then empty the Recycle Bin.

  2. If you already opened it, disconnect from the internet and run a full scan with your antivirus — Windows Security, built into Windows, is sufficient.

  3. If you typed any passwords while it was open, change them from a device you trust.

  4. In future, only download software from the official website or an official app store.

Threat family attribution

astraea corroborated by 2 sources

  • VT (74 engines)
    astraea
  • MT AI Engine
    astraea
Runtime behaviour

What this file did when executed

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

MITRE ATT&CK
4

Adversary techniques mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

T1027· Obfuscated codeT1027.002· Obfuscated codeT1055· Process injectionT1071· Remote server (C2)
Spawned processes
1
$(unnamed)
"C:\Users\user\Desktop\valorant_unlocker.exe"
Network activity
1
IP addresses1
  • 162.159.36.2
No researcher-database hits
External threat-intel sources were not collected for this scan.
Signature matches

YARA & heuristic rule matches

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

2 synthesis
MITRE ATT&CK profile
Defense evasion× 1C2× 1
MalwareTips synthesis rules
Our own detection rules, applied to the scan data and 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:\Users\user\Desktop\valorant_unlocker.exe"
  • DirectIpC2medium

    Sample contacted 1 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
    162.159.36.2
Antivirus engine breakdown

11 detections across 74 engines

11 malicious0 suspicious63 clean
Tier-117 engines
5flag
Top commercial AVs (low FP rate)
Tier-240 engines
5flag
Mainstream engines with mixed FP rates
Low-trust17 engines
1flag
Heuristic / generic-AI engines (high FP rate)
AhnLab-V3
malicious
Malware/Win.Generic.C5829852
Avast
malicious
Win64:Evo-gen [Trj]
AVG
malicious
Win64:Evo-gen [Trj]
Avira
malicious
TR/W64.Evo
F-Secure
malicious
Trojan.TR/W64.Evo
Google
malicious
Detected
Gridinsoft
malicious
Trojan.Win64.Downloader.oa!s1
huorong
malicious
Trojan/JS.Obfuscated.ej
Ikarus
malicious
Trojan-Spy.Node.Astraea
Malwarebytes
malicious
RiskWare.PowerShell
Varist
malicious
W64/Agent.LZW.gen!Eldorado
Hash f9206d7014d0… cross-referenced against 74 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 entropy10 sections
.text
6.49
.rdata
6.29
.data
4.03
.pdata
6.67
.fptable
0.00
.tls
0.05
_RDATA
4.44
malloc_h
0.04
.reloc
5.48
.rsrc
7.38
0.0Packed threshold 7.28.0
Prevalence

How widely this file has been seen

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

Medium
Unique uploaders
4
Moderate upload volume.
Total submissions
4
Includes repeat uploads by the same source.
First seen
0d ago
Jul 14, 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)
7/14/2026, 1:11:41 PM UTC
First seen (MalwareBazaar)
Last analysis (VT)
7/14/2026, 1:11:41 PM UTC
Scanned here
7/15/2026, 4:23:49 AM UTC
File name
uploaded-file.exe
Size
86.08 MB
MIME type
(unknown)
Detected type
Win32 EXE
SHA-256
f9206d7014d0b7b93e71323f5e1f57b4ecc98cca3e501e6cd7a3f2427b681389
MD5
15f33318167c4874ac5bff52e8d98514
SHA-1
3493863655a82a526651840027f9bc964203119d
PE imphash
9bf3f5698d1c8e5d8bbe8d194ac5d544
First seen (VT)
7/14/2026, 1:11:41 PM UTC
Last analysis (VT)
7/14/2026, 1:11:41 PM UTC
First scan (MalwareTips)
7/15/2026, 1:57:26 AM UTC
Last scan (MalwareTips)
7/15/2026, 4:23:49 AM UTC
Behavior tags
peexe64bitscorrupt
Frequently asked

Safety FAQ

Common questions about uploaded-file.exe, answered from the scan data above.

  • Yes — uploaded-file.exe is malicious, so do not run it, and delete it. 11 of 74 antivirus engines flag it (family: astraea). It behaves as a trojan — malware disguised as something harmless to trick you into running it. If you've already run it, see the removal and recovery steps below.
  • uploaded-file.exe is a Windows executable program, about 86.1 MB. Our analysis identifies it as malicious (family: astraea) — a trojan — malware disguised as something harmless to trick you into running it. Because a file's name and icon can be faked, the safest way to identify it is by its cryptographic hash (below), not its filename.
  • 11 of 74 antivirus engines flagged uploaded-file.exe, 11 of them as outright malicious. A detection rate at this level is a reliable signal that the file is dangerous.
  • Act quickly. 1) Disconnect the device from the internet to stop the malware communicating or spreading. 2) Run a full scan with reputable anti-malware software (such as Malwarebytes) and quarantine everything it finds. 3) Change your important passwords from a DIFFERENT, clean device — many threats log keystrokes or steal saved credentials. 4) If you bank or shop on this device, watch closely for fraud and alert your bank. 5) For a confirmed infection, the most reliable fix is to back up your personal files and reinstall the operating system for a clean start.
  • To remove uploaded-file.exe: 1) restart into Safe Mode (Safe Mode with Networking if you need to download a tool) so the malware doesn't auto-start. 2) Run a full scan with reputable anti-malware software and let it quarantine or delete the detections. 3) Delete the original uploaded-file.exe file and empty the Recycle Bin/Trash. 4) Check your browser extensions, startup items, and scheduled tasks for anything unfamiliar. 5) Reboot and scan again to confirm it's gone. If detections keep coming back, a clean operating-system reinstall is the most dependable cure.
  • uploaded-file.exe is classified as a trojan — malware disguised as something harmless to trick you into running it. Engines attribute it to the astraea family. Knowing the family matters because it tells you the likely impact — data theft, remote control, file encryption, or unwanted ads — and guides the cleanup.
  • The SHA-256 hash of uploaded-file.exe is f9206d7014d0b7b93e71323f5e1f57b4ecc98cca3e501e6cd7a3f2427b681389, and its MD5 is 15f33318167c4874ac5bff52e8d98514. 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.
  • This report reflects the scan run on July 14, 2026. Because a file's hash never changes, the identity of uploaded-file.exe 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.
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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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.