Unraveling the Trojan: Is Twitch Compromised?

In recent days, an alarming concern has arisen among Twitch users regarding the potential presence of a Trojan virus affecting the popular streaming platform. Specifically, discussions have centered around the “Trojan:Win32/Malgent” detection by Windows Defender, leading many to wonder about the implications for their devices.

Understanding the Detection

It’s important to note that this particular detection from Windows Defender only appears if users have the latest virus definitions and conduct a full system scan. A quick scan will not identify this Trojan, so a thorough examination of your system is necessary for accurate detection.

I’ve been using Google Chrome, but reports indicate that similar issues have emerged across other browsers, including Microsoft Edge and Firefox, as well as through the OBS browser cache.

My Experience with the Detection

Recently, I performed a full system scan using Windows Defender, which initially showed no threats. However, upon re-scanning the following evening, I discovered the Trojan:Win32/Malgent residing in a specific cache folder:
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache\Cache_Data. Naturally, this raised alarms, prompting me to conduct further research.

My findings hinted that this detection might be linked to Twitch and could potentially be a false positive. After allowing Windows Defender to remove the flagged file, I ran another full scan—this time with both Windows Defender and Malwarebytes—with no subsequent threats detected.

Investigating the Source

To delve deeper, I restarted my computer and ran a customized scan of the same cache folder. Initially, all scans came back clean, with no new files detected. However, after loading a Twitch stream for a couple of minutes, I returned to find that a new file had been created in the cache. A scan identified the same Trojan:Win32/Malgent within this file. Interestingly, Malwarebytes did not flag it as a threat, and even VirusTotal corroborated the detection.

Repeated Anomalies

After removing the infected file, I repeated the process multiple times: opening Twitch, loading a stream, and subsequently scanning the new cache files. Each time, the Trojan:Win32/Malgent detection reappeared in the files created after watching Twitch. This pattern persisted through my tests, leading to growing concern.

What Does This Mean for Users?

This situation raises crucial questions: Could Twitch be compromised, inadvertently transmitting a Trojan to