Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 125220bfcb477caa…

MALICIOUS

PDF

7.5 KB
MD5: fd30994eda02f6c1a9225bff7ca84b72 SHA-1: ff7b2f2658e25b8bbd5936f1f6a3b23890018aa4 SHA-256: 125220bfcb477caa5c1f5ffbaa3a43f76373bcf4277f49b014018f9ffb1cffa4
246 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution T1059.007 JavaScript T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The PDF file contains embedded JavaScript that leverages the CVE-2014-0496 vulnerability by calling app.addToolButton and app.removeToolButton. The JavaScript includes a large unescaped string that is likely shellcode, and functions designed for heap spraying, indicating an attempt to download and execute a secondary payload. The document body's content is unrelated to the malicious functionality.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 1.0000

Heuristics 10

  • app.addToolButton/removeToolButton — CVE-2014-0496 critical CVE exact CVE_2014_0496
    PDF JavaScript combines app.addToolButton() and app.removeToolButton() with heap-spray shellcode markers — the public Adobe Reader/Acrobat ToolButton use-after-free exploit shape for CVE-2014-0496. (matched in decompressed stream)
  • PDF JavaScript exploit cluster critical PDF_JS_EXPLOIT_CLUSTER
    PDF combines an executable JavaScript/action surface with exploit staging indicators such as eval/unescape/fromCharCode, XFA script content, or a related CVE pattern. Benign form JavaScript remains low-severity, but this correlated cluster is high-confidence malicious behavior.
  • unescape() call high PDF_UNESCAPE
    unescape() found — often used to decode shellcode in PDF JS exploits (matched inside decoded stream)
  • Embedded script payload in PDF stream medium PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD
    PDF stream bytes contain an HTML/XFA <script> tag without accompanying Windows shell-execution primitives — common in accessible XFA forms but worth surfacing for analyst review.
  • JavaScript action low PDF_JAVASCRIPT
    PDF contains a /JavaScript action. Generic JavaScript is common in benign forms; specific dangerous APIs are scored by separate rules.
  • Embedded JS stream low PDF_JS
    PDF references a /JS stream. Generic JavaScript is common in benign forms; specific dangerous APIs are scored by separate rules.
  • XFA form low PDF_XFA
    PDF uses XML Forms Architecture — can contain script logic
  • AcroForm button with action trigger low PDF_ACROFORM_BUTTON
    PDF contains a /Btn form field together with a SubmitForm/URI/Launch/JS trigger — this is the building block of fake 'Download' or 'Open' button overlays used in PDF phishing lures
  • Suspicious extracted artifact info EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE
    One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://ns.adobe.com/xdp/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xci/3.0/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-template/3.0/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/

Extracted artifacts 4

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
javascript_obj0001_000.js
a6158e3f71d266d916f6645169cf3408d919943ad405153290af81840f23296c		 pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 1 at offset 0xA 4426 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 13 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).
stream_001_off0000152c.js
d1dfd457a2fdd3cec4091f689f39b85b35666aa5599ef3a8d5f9a80d1e2ce105		 decompressed-pdf-stream PDF FlateDecoded stream at offset 0x152C 1042 bytes
font_00_type1_off000019c8.bin
c6bf78478c9c4dd5b3b86554d34c78f847f70af4118f9ff083c1fccf0e8e932b		 pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (type1) at offset 0x19C8 97 bytes
font_01_type1_off00001c4f.bin
b749644b3e758e7335900ab2e7499eaa64b3a946849f1f8a0948287bdd96763d		 pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (type1) at offset 0x1C4F 144 bytes

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