r/Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes detected 2 old files during a deep scan — could this affect my PC or Rust?

I was running my weekly Malwarebytes check when I noticed it detected 2 files during the Deep Scan. I ran both a Threat Scan and a Deep Scan, and the Deep Scan found 2 detected files that I immediately deleted.

I have no clue where the hell these files came from, but I noticed they were last modified in 2013–2014.

I've never cheated on Rust, and I haven't touched or opened these files at all. I only found out about them today when i ran a deep Scan

What worries me is the timeline. As you can see, I ran a Deep Scan on 05/08/2026 and it found nothing. Now, on 18/08/2026, it suddenly flagged these 2 files out of nowhere.

Also why would malewarebytes flag nothing during my deep scan on 05/08 but suddelny on 18/08 these 2 files appeared. is there any way they ran by themselves and got flagged and if they did Can i potentially be gamebanned for simply having them on my PC?

Could these files somehow affect my PC or Rust, even though I never used them and Malwarebytes just detected them? Is there anything else I should check to make sure my system is clean?

I have around 1k$ in my rust Inventory that im not sure if its safe for sure,

I ran another Deep Scan test and it found 0 Detections
I also ran Windows security Scan

https://preview.redd.it/12dpn1qyv3kh1.png?width=885&format=png&auto=webp&s=cd71551bfebcdfe036dcd5ec2924a080ce65df97

https://preview.redd.it/6zlyrr2tv3kh1.png?width=2477&format=png&auto=webp&s=27dd420e4a54f32da3cd8ec8a36e18ec3660629a

I do have malwarebytes, but it has never shut down protection mid scan like this. i even tried doing a windows security offline scan and it froze at 91 percent and didnt finish.

malwarebytes scan is showing that chrome user data and sync data folders are browser hijacks? I havent done anything differently recently so are these false positives?

Malwarebytes.

It was bad enough qhen you started charging a fortune.

Now I've discovered, the Malwarebytes app has a tracker (as do most apps) that is making more requests out, by 4 times more than the next closest blocled up.

Seriously?

You are an app protecting privacy and security but the app sends over 8K plus requests just yesterday to Aplitude.

So this is adding onto my other post about Noteit (ill link the other one in the comments). So basically I ended up deleting it, but as we speak, I am looking through appdata and found "Noteit". As any curious person would, I had a look through it. I ended up finding something that shocked me (picture below). I scanned the whole folder with malwarebytes and it hasn't found a problem (picture below). I'm really scared rn. Is it safe to open those files? What do I do???

https://preview.redd.it/qfovhttui2jh1.png?width=952&format=png&auto=webp&s=f3da50684c5fc2827ea5a9834a0f4d15a7ba2f75

https://preview.redd.it/y3era4wyh2jh1.png?width=1176&format=png&auto=webp&s=35136bd3a49b27d594ef0e3f8bd38fc113b7e103

https://preview.redd.it/wr94xpm9i2jh1.png?width=941&format=png&auto=webp&s=7698b6f811ff2e7f4772e53d444f57eb55d2ee92

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/cfc7af3b65808dc5f50d4cd4162c158ebd35159a46a5d77e94a709bfba120905/detection

Preface: Malwarebytes has never found anything every time I have ever ran it. I have been through victim of a stunt that involves but not limited to hacking since 2015. While I understand that word "hacking" is all too commonly used in assumption, I'm just laying out the facts. Malwarebytes has come up dry.

Found a few large system files in system32 that do not seem within a logical range in size. Mrt.exe being 287000kb in size

Where do these switched out system files come from?

And what do they do?

i was using ProtonVPN in Chrome (official protonvpn!). i connected to the Netherlands, and Malwarebytes displayed a message saying that outgoing connections had been blocked (3 times). I removed the extension, uninstalled Chrome using Revo Uninstaller, and reinstalled it. Has any of my data been hacked; like saved passwords in browser, files from PC, etc, etc?

I checked the IP address and it belongs to WorldStream B.V.

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/ip-address/80.79.6.83/detection

Recently the update 3.1.0 contains a confirmed remote code execution (rce)

People are not safe even with any antivirus, something called “crypter” bypasses the antiviruses

You are only compromised if you downloaded the update today, not related to the old “patched map rce”

Edit: The game itself is free from malware, the incident was limited to a single admin’s Discord account being compromised (from Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/4704690/view/680756685198854787?l=english)

I don't understand the difference between the Brute Force and Firewall modes. Why can't they be integrated? The brute force mode is quite limited, with only a few protocols and ports.

Please create a specific subreddit for ThreatDown.

Preciso de ajuda, meu pai instalou um malware pelo celular, um amigo dele falou para ele baixa um arquivo BIN, com o nome StarlinkAtivação.apk, e ele baixou e aceitou as permissões, resumindo, descontaram 300,00 reais do cartão dele, eu fui tentatr desisntalar, mas esse malware fecha toda vez que tento desintalar ou forçar parada, desiguei wifi e liguei modo avião agora ele só fica na tela de starlink maldita, preciso de ajuda, já tentei resetar e também não consigo

So this is a bit convoluted because just over a month ago I ran an infostealer (someone got into friends discord account) like a moron. Since then I had changed all my passwords, 2fa'd everything and secured all accounts. I also wiped windows completely and upgraded to windows 11 from a clean USB (friends PC) have noticed no strange activity since then on any account.

What happened:
Yesterday I tried to google something (pressing Crtl +E in firefox) and I get it with a white screen saying "Unusual traffic from your computer network". So still being paranoid from before I check what this means. It appears to be a legit captcha that can happen form time to time. I had moved to a new place over a year ago and this is the first time this happened - also the first time this happened to me in recent memory (I dont think ive had this happen for multiple years or ever tbh)

So I do the im not a robot and click the images as noted like a normal captcha. Just for clarity I did NOT open and run command prompt as I was reading up on that with ClickFix and fake captchas. I get back into google. Then it hits me to double check if that was a legit captcha or not.

Malwarebytes:

I have malwarebytes going so I try to run a scan - my last scan was 9 days ago but I have windows defender running simultaneously all this time.

This is where I have a problem: Malwarebytes freezes at the scanning memory and crashes my PC. So now im freaking out - I try the recovery support tool, updating windows and other stuff, but it still does not work anymore. I am still at this stage which was yesterday night. After testing some more stuff, Malwarebytes can complete the scan if I skip the memory section.

The same night I was able to download bitdefender virus scanning and ran a full scan and came up empty as well as a full scan from windows defender comes back clean.

Trying to fix the malwarebytes issues, I update windows as well. Here my activation watermark goes away (When clean installing to windows 11 it could not take my old activation key, it was likely from a school account I had 6 years ago). To note after I had wiped my PC, I was already having some graphical issues (the watermark would overlay it self like in the middle of screen then go back to normal)

This morning I ran an defender offline scan as well with defender and it comes back clean.

At this point I have no idea if its worth wiping my PC again or if this was just truly all coincidental timing (as I noted I had not ran malwarebytes since over 9 days, so its possible this issue could have shown up earlier).

Anyway appreciate some advice on whether this sounds like a malware or not. As I had wiped my PC and when this happened I was logged out of almost everything in my browser (no saved passwords, everything was changed from the infostealer attack) and the only thing I had signed in was my steam (but it was not running at all the time).

Thanks