Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 38d451bdaceb2005…

MALICIOUS

PDF

12.3 KB
MD5: aabfe3d7f3f97e5a8c935aa109795444 SHA-1: a15188c946c9e52c0df24d71d9bb5800229ae0d5 SHA-256: 38d451bdaceb20050408098eeffad9a8c8c1b4513b1d6d7e67049a060c2a0ec4
226 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious File T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious Attachment T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter

The PDF file contains XFA (XML Forms Architecture) which is known to be vulnerable to heap spray attacks. The critical heuristic 'PDF_XFA_HEAP_SPRAY' indicates the presence of exploit code designed to trigger this vulnerability. The embedded file and script payload further suggest that this is a delivery mechanism for a secondary malicious payload. The ClamAV detection 'Pdf.Exploit.Dropped-78' confirms the malicious nature of the file.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 1.0000

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.
  • ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Dropped-78 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Exploit.Dropped-78
  • 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
  • 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/xfa-template/2.5/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_file_obj0008.bin
8981a1f82d2028363935dda37d5ce015ef09e52cac103f5beec36969cc5bd6a6
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 8 at offset 0xC8 11812 bytes