Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 29a8fc828d7af86d…

MALICIOUS

PDF

23.0 KB Authoring application: 52-164-161-159-117-154-147-164-117-161-150-151-90-145-123-105-144-145-123-106-91-109-175-164-151-166-167-164-160-82-145-123-103-175-152-167-160-149-166-155-161-160-82-145-123-107-90-145-123-104-91-173 (via 1-154-119-162-107-152-161-116-125-97-97-97-97-97-169-115-115-115-115-116-115-115-115-115-115-115-115-115-115-115-115-115-131-115-115-115-115-115-115-115-115-139-170-117-115-133-155-115-153-139-115-97-)
MD5: e3140ccc6e03716c7512d61aa562bee3 SHA-1: ee3bd0d4d67ffae5039cd7ab025a2a21b277bc6a SHA-256: 29a8fc828d7af86def96c50b4de4e161e19b4ecc164811a5177a502f389afeb7
218 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

This PDF file exhibits multiple high-severity heuristic firings, including PDF_EVAL and PDF_XFA_SCRIPT, indicating the presence of executable script content within an XFA form. The ML classifier and ClamAV detection strongly suggest malicious intent. The embedded script payload is likely designed to download and execute a second-stage payload, as indicated by the 'embedded_file_obj0043.bin' artifact and the 'PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD' firing. The specific ClamAV detection name 'Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36962' is included as a primary IOC.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 0.9994

Heuristics 9

  • 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.
  • ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36962 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36962
  • eval() call high PDF_EVAL
    eval() found — commonly used for obfuscated exploit execution (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.
  • Embedded file low PDF_EMBEDDED
    PDF embeds a file attachment — could carry an executable or another weaponised document as a nested payload
  • 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://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/
    • http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/

Extracted artifacts 6

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_file_obj0041.bin
c06dcd026a7ea0536b63e07ce688691b585339a3ab7ff59065e546b56308c7bb
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 41 at offset 0x38DB 85 bytes
embedded_file_obj0042.bin
b40a217a8d9b8d3671cc3874c550d30941b93ca6dde99995d43921dede579865
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 42 at offset 0x398D 1183 bytes
embedded_file_obj0043.bin
071dcacec007fe9d49047a4376936f5b9162cda913212488fa1bd649eeffc472
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 43 at offset 0x3BDD 1714 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).
embedded_file_obj0044.bin
3dd68f00f4fcb366a2a3a17c65cb2626eeddf5ea5713302d374310561d810169
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 44 at offset 0x3F89 144 bytes
embedded_file_obj0045.bin
ce4a3f07835c725838e55947d6b1f21771e0ad8084ee86d0890ecc12bd5231fd
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 45 at offset 0x404B 2427 bytes
font_00_cff_off0000441b.bin
062eede2d0cc5d3972869dc7e2f2f9f01d1d1b3756b715c8252f06948ce99ae2
pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (cff) at offset 0x441B 1192 bytes