The invention provides a file sample attribute determining method and apparatus. The file sample attribute determining method comprises: acquiring a current file sample and information of all known sample types, wherein information of each known sample type comprises an attribute and determination information of the corresponding sample type; and selecting a sample type from the known sample types as a current sample type; extracting key information from the current file sample according to the determination information of the current sample type; comparing the extracted key information with the determination information; and determining the attribute of the current sample according to a comparison result. According to the file sample attribute determining method and apparatus of the embodiments of the invention, information of known sample types is acquired; key information of a current sample is extracted according to determination information of a known sample type; the extracted key information is compared with the corresponding determination information; and an attribute is acquired according to a comparison result, thereby greatly improving sample attribute determining efficiency.