VirusTotal
VirusTotal is an online service that analyses files, URLs, domains and IP addresses with many antivirus engines and other tools and shares the results.
Legal & ethical use. Do not upload confidential files: submissions may be visible to other users. Use this tool only on systems, networks and data that you own or have explicit written permission to test. Unauthorised access or scanning can break computer-misuse laws (for example Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, and equivalents elsewhere). Practise in your own lab or in authorised environments such as CTFs.
What it is used for
- Check whether a file hash or URL is known to be malicious
- Pivot from an indicator to related infrastructure
Key features
- Multi-engine scanning
- Hash, URL, domain and IP lookups
- API and community
Installation
Use the website (no install) or the official vt-cli with an API key.
Beginner usage guide
Prefer searching by hash rather than uploading sensitive files: uploads are shared with the security community.
Example commands
Run these only against your own lab or authorised targets. Placeholder addresses such as 192.0.2.x are documentation ranges.
Look up a hash with vt-cli
vt file 44d88612fea8a8f36de82e1278abb02fLooks up the well-known EICAR test file hash (safe test string).
References
Source verification
Last reviewed: 2026-10-27
Links checked over HTTP: 2026-10-27 07:51 UTC — official: 200, docs: 200, repo: 200
Commands were written from the official documentation and have not been executed on this site; test them in your lab.