Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 21754c2b8726394a…

MALICIOUS

PDF

23.6 KB
MD5: 09e1e936740cbe2bfd41d62f4ebd40ed SHA-1: a98f09d8b4655ea30edef23d355d78cc890d6757 SHA-256: 21754c2b8726394adb0250f09c84f9ea263c4f5151d552700fc818144c6bbe22
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

This PDF file was flagged as malicious by an ML classifier and contains embedded JavaScript. The JavaScript, particularly the deobfuscated version, appears to be designed to download and execute a second-stage payload from a remote source. The presence of PDF JavaScript exploit cluster heuristics further supports this attack pattern. No specific family could be identified.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 0.9994

Heuristics 7

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • String.fromCharCode low PDF_FROMCHARCODE
    String.fromCharCode found — used to construct payload strings dynamically. Common in benign JavaScript libraries for codepoint manipulation, so this alone is informational; weaponised use is also caught by the dedicated fromCharCode-stage and exploit-shape rules. (matched inside decoded stream)
  • PDF paints image(s) but contains no text operators info PDF_IMAGE_ONLY_LURE
    PDF has 1 image XObject(s) and the content stream contains no text-emitting operators (BT/ET, Tj, TJ, ', ") in either raw bytes or decompressed streams — this is the screenshot-as-PDF pattern used to bypass text-based scanners and to deliver instructions purely through rendered pixels. It is informational unless paired with invisible links or risky URI context.
  • 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://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/
    • http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
javascript_obj0099_000.js
9028d2d340a1b5b9f134a18ddb98e82aae811e0c06ba1a148a8b59e3c557d5d0
pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 99 at offset 0x548D 8585 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 9 long base64-like blob(s).
deobfuscated.js
c740f5cfce6a59064df8388cb336d338227e81d70313c0c4d3cc68437ffd4116
deobfuscated-js PDF JavaScript deobfuscation pass 41360 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 4 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 18 long base64-like blob(s).