Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 451d1ca159eec364…

MALICIOUS

PDF

5.2 KB
MD5: c0a9ca1adcb52100f0e226de092771cc SHA-1: 85ad29cf78de8833571975fbea854a6c7b11cff1 SHA-256: 451d1ca159eec3645759debc86bfbc074ba43ac1815d6ce4e155b9b9f68c87c9
144 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

This PDF file was flagged as malicious by multiple detection engines, including ClamAV which identified it as 'Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36178'. Static analysis revealed the presence of JavaScript actions and embedded JS streams, along with the use of ASCIIHexDecode and ASCII85Decode filters, which are common indicators of PDF exploits. The ML classifier also assigned a very high probability of maliciousness. The exact attack pattern is not fully discernible from the limited document body, but the presence of exploit-related heuristics strongly suggests it aims to leverage a vulnerability to execute code.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 1.0000

Heuristics 7

  • ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36178 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36178
  • ASCIIHexDecode filter (with exploit indicators) medium PDF_FILTER_HEX
    Hex-encoding filter present alongside exploit delivery indicators — often used to hide payload or shellcode bytes
  • 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)
  • ASCII85Decode filter (with exploit indicators) low PDF_FILTER_85
    ASCII85 encoding filter present alongside exploit delivery indicators — uncommon outside of obfuscation
  • 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.

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