Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1f3541fcf5bb5d51…

MALICIOUS

PDF

86.3 KB
MD5: db7ab02f7acf898bb1712c2f6e56bb4c SHA-1: b31bb273b13ff33ae32fdfabe82c9816deeb9403 SHA-256: 1f3541fcf5bb5d51dfeb7d54d9ee91a307b80b0dd0aef5a7bbc87ba9b91200fe
162 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The PDF file contains XFA (XML Forms Architecture) which is known to be vulnerable to heap spray attacks. Heuristics indicate the presence of XFA JavaScript heap-spray exploit code and an embedded script payload. The ML classifier strongly flags this PDF as malicious. The embedded script is likely responsible for downloading and executing a second-stage payload, a common technique for initial access.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 0.9990

Heuristics 7

  • XFA form contains risky executable script high CVE related PDF_XFA_SCRIPT
    PDF embeds an XFA form whose script block contains exploit, submission/launch, or shell-execution primitives. Ordinary LiveCycle print/update scripts are left as generic XFA/JS signals unless stronger behavior is present.
  • XFA JavaScript heap-spray exploit code critical PDF_XFA_HEAP_SPRAY
    PDF contains XFA script content with heap-spray or shellcode-like JavaScript markers such as large encoded word sequences, util.pack, large arrays, or spray variable names. This is a weaponised Adobe Reader exploit pattern, not a normal interactive form.
  • 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.
  • XFA form low PDF_XFA
    PDF uses XML Forms Architecture — can contain script logic
  • PDF differential parser failed info PDF_DIFFERENTIAL_PARSE_FAILED
    The cross-check parser (pdfminer.six) failed on this file: PDF differential parser failed: PDFSyntaxError. Static heuristics still ran and any of their findings above are valid; only the differential cross-check signal is missing.
  • 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/1.0/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xtd/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xfdf/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-form/2.8/

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_pdf_script_00000b22.bin
2e77db77cbc551b8a25a9932047574bc512a50dc3fa37a64ebc970e4339eaa43
pdf-embedded-script PDF raw stream script payload at offset 0xB22 85462 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 long base64-like blob(s).