Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 22a1a802c8ead48e…

MALICIOUS

PDF

2.23 MB Created: 2009-02-23 15:37:39 +01:00 Authoring application: PScript5.dll Version 5.2.2 (via Acrobat Distiller 6.0 (Windows)) First seen: 2026-05-11
MD5: e4e4ae34f3cd44093e5aa5879f6308ff SHA-1: 409509ae5247a5729e1333fb498f10bc316e8ef0 SHA-256: 22a1a802c8ead48e68402e0a1c13d583c7028e16c68faa30d749ecf683b57dd0
538 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.003 Windows Command Shell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The PDF file contains embedded JavaScript and a critical PDF_LAUNCH heuristic firing indicating an attempt to execute cmd.exe. This is further supported by the CVE_2010_1240 heuristic, which specifically targets this type of exploit. The embedded PE payload suggests the primary purpose is to download and execute a secondary malicious binary. The ClamAV detection also confirms its malicious nature.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 0.9785

Heuristics 13

  • Adobe Reader Launch action command execution critical CVE exact CVE_2010_1240
    PDF uses the Adobe Reader/Acrobat Launch action pattern associated with CVE-2010-1240: cmd.exe is invoked with attacker-controlled parameters, paired with an embedded/exported payload.
  • ClamAV: Pdf.Tool.Agent-1388586 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Tool.Agent-1388586
  • Launch action critical PDF_LAUNCH
    PDF contains a /Launch action whose target is an executable, URL, or UNC path — can start an external application
  • Embedded Windows executable payload in PDF stream critical PDF_EMBEDDED_PE_PAYLOAD
    PDF stream bytes contain an embedded Windows executable with a verified PE header. Exploit chains often hide droppers inside ordinary streams rather than standard /EmbeddedFile attachments.
  • /Launch action target: cmd.exe critical PDF_LAUNCH_COMMAND
    PDF /Launch action specifies an executable target with parameters '/Q /C %HOMEDRIVE%&cd %HOMEPATH%&(if exist "Desktop\\test.pdf" (cd "Desktop"' — references a known-dangerous executable (cmd, PowerShell, etc.).
  • Embedded attachment masquerades: declared document, content is windows-executable critical PDF_EMBEDDED_FILESPEC_CONTENT_MISMATCH
    An /EmbeddedFile attachment's declared filename extension or /Subtype MIME type contradicts the magic bytes of its decompressed content. The attachment is declared as a benign document or image but the bytes are an executable or executable-bearing archive. This is a deliberate deception used to hide droppers in PDF attachments and is a generic indicator of embed-and-drop weaponisation, independent of any specific CVE.
  • /Launch action paired with attachment-dropping JS API high PDF_LAUNCH_PLUS_DROPPER_JS
    PDF combines a /Launch action with a JavaScript API call that writes or opens an attached/external resource — the canonical shape of the CVE-2010-1240 /Launch + exportDataObject family. Benign PDFs do not pair these surfaces; the combination indicates a drop-and-execute chain regardless of the specific JS API knobs or /Launch target.
  • Suspicious extracted artifact medium 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.
  • JavaScript action low 1 related finding 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.
  • Embedded file low PDF_EMBEDDED
    PDF embeds a file attachment — could carry an executable or another weaponised document as a nested payload
  • Object number defined twice with different bodies info PDF_DUPLICATE_OBJ_BODY_INCREMENTAL
    The same indirect object (N G) is defined more than once with different body bytes. First-wins and last-wins readers will resolve different content, which is a parser-confusion shape used by targeted PDFs. Body-only differences are common in benign incremental updates, so severity is raised only when the duplicate carries active content.
  • 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://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu In PDF document text
    • http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/iX/1.0/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/In PDF document text
    • http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/In PDF document text
    • http://www.iec.chIn extracted file (icc_00_off001ff7a7.icc)

Extracted artifacts 17

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
test.pdf pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 205 at offset 0x236F40 37888 bytes
SHA-256: 35a5003eb15340a9d122a115ca38ee184fdecadce23a0e017e2ae114a1973b81
Detection
ClamAV: Win.Trojan.Rozena-131
Obfuscation or payload: likely
actual_type=PE; declared_or_context_type=PDF; filename=test.pdf; kind=pdf-embedded-file Static shellcode analysis found candidate code region(s). Indicators: SC_PEB_ACCESS, SC_STR_GETPROCADDRESS, SC_STR_LOADLIBRARY Static shellcode analysis recovered API/import strings: GetProcAddress, ExitProcess, LoadLibraryA, VirtualAlloc
javascript_obj0206_000.js pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 206 at offset 0x23BCE6 53 bytes
SHA-256: b1a09f919e0f5d1c1d284849c9af93bae6fd1411634dfdc491e126f9cd327f3f
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
this.exportDataObject({ cName: "test", nLaunch: 0 });
icc_00_off001ff7a7.icc pdf-icc-profile PDF ICC profile at offset 0x1FF7A7 3144 bytes
SHA-256: 2b3aa1645779a9e634744faf9b01e9102b0c9b88fd6deced7934df86b949af7e
font_00_cff_off00071636.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x71636 1731 bytes
SHA-256: e40318f4699d4d1d3ca6dd8e45396a94cc2ad81c6d122f2c89c8a3666401dfc4
font_01_cff_off001d095d.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x1D095D 1764 bytes
SHA-256: daf3f69a6fc659bfbc8b6d1436e81c590b1945229c79a0c85f036f00dae3a962
font_02_cff_off001d8f97.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x1D8F97 7726 bytes
SHA-256: 60b5b8b4c521a6105d213b88717df63b54ebc327391a3ac4fd764b5093ed1c21
font_03_cff_off001da98b.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x1DA98B 6136 bytes
SHA-256: 664170f7b103eeb9f154d7c0a96f16b7215126a176e20c6d6e10a8d592f7ab01
font_04_cff_off001dc79e.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x1DC79E 1065 bytes
SHA-256: c2037762b45d22683a143c2c62342558c62927569fdbf7c0eef814a8853f86bc
font_05_cff_off001dcd2e.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x1DCD2E 1081 bytes
SHA-256: 88243a8fa45261e4c3acb9d7dd36662f9e6956663cf3e2131006d8c4c6fdfcd7
font_06_cff_off001dd69c.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x1DD69C 5292 bytes
SHA-256: 4a6de1e3e2cd3a2bc54936b3a2e97c1605427861089ef47de74301dd6f39f4bf
font_07_cff_off001de863.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x1DE863 1107 bytes
SHA-256: 00941be45440c2e2b874328cd364d0dc742144eef0c1244e56b33a47602d88a9
font_08_cff_off0020020b.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x20020B 7441 bytes
SHA-256: 806e0c55f6027a11d5765f68d3e4764f3da12e51097602c9d5ef9b79b7236e83
font_09_cff_off0020189a.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x20189A 8250 bytes
SHA-256: 5b0e640a85e2c975085a716b342fa81a307bfa44b8de4e7d9e2b050ac9e33b94
font_10_cff_off0020313b.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x20313B 4499 bytes
SHA-256: 29ee55c150fe1d4bb82bab388e3bef7a17f2ef3461ff40febc9ceee2bc193844
font_11_cff_off00218d96.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x218D96 651 bytes
SHA-256: 1b222b87d9b9caa729efe201f10a182f07dfd980c7f5a4eb5211bed6379f966c
font_12_cff_off0021cba7.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x21CBA7 2647 bytes
SHA-256: 6afb44f439ce3368816bde18ad2b822d4d3e10e93bd84878dc9bb1c59d288454
font_13_cff_off00220173.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x220173 4506 bytes
SHA-256: 5808066277124b1b5f0e70f004541a543206f050d40dc1dd158a65aef93cfe0a