Repository navigation
rustup-init.exe x86_64-pc-windows-gnu flagged as virus #4891
Description
Verification
- I searched for recent similar issues at https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/issues?q=is%3Aissue and found no duplicates.
- I am on the latest version of Rustup according to https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/tags and am still able to reproduce my issue.
Problem
The rustup-init.exe binary for x86_64-pc-windows-gnu is flagged as a virus by multiple scanners/vendors:
- https://metadefender.com/results/file/bzI2MDYwM1ZfMHZzcERjYW52R1ZFMmtkZnl2_mdaas
- https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/03dbaae1d33a4d220bd0d202e5092955dae859c119074192ca513f8c4713fff7
The MSVC-based target ( x86_64-pc-window-msvc) has only one negative ("LIKELY_MALICOUS") verdict:
- https://metadefender.com/results/hash/86478E53F769379D7F0EBFA7C9AA97CB76CA92233F79AA2CC0DBEE2EFAAC73C7
- https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/86478e53f769379d7f0ebfa7c9aa97cb76ca92233f79aa2cc0dbee2efaac73c7
Steps
- Download binary from https://static.rust-lang.org/rustup/dist/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/rustup-init.exe
- Upload to scanning website
- Read report.
Possible Solution(s)
No response
Notes
No response
Rustup version
1.29Installed toolchains
-OS version
-
Activity
rami3l commentedon Jun 4, 2026
@wufh43 Thanks for reporting.
However I'm not sure if there is a lot the team can do about it... As this is essentially a trust issue?
For example, "TrojanDownloader:Win32/Agent is family of Trojans that download unwanted software from a remote Web site"
clearly matches what this project does, just in a slightly different perspectivesimply means this program can download other programs, which is exactly what this project is about? 🤔cc @ChrisDenton
ChrisDenton commentedon Jun 4, 2026
There's nothing much we can do about it. Unsigned binaries are prone to being flagged by anti-malware vendors. You can try to inform each one that it's a false positive.
The
windows-gnuinstaller has it much worse because it's rarely used.