Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 48bb87feca1efede…

MALICIOUS

PDF

5.0 KB
MD5: 6da0a68974c35c590803c8e622f30ddc SHA-1: a2192a9890aaac1a0ea0ffb3bc45242b3c476ec8 SHA-256: 48bb87feca1efede6a3e8399a9ff2fb1de82ff7c00d6917450063beede0f87e4
316 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.007 JavaScript T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

This PDF document contains embedded JavaScript that exploits CVE-2014-0496 using app.addToolButton/removeToolButton. The script is designed to download and execute a second-stage payload, indicated by the PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD and PDF_JS_EXPLOIT_CLUSTER heuristics. The presence of a malicious embedded PDF child further supports this conclusion.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 0.9975

Heuristics 13

  • app.addToolButton/removeToolButton — CVE-2014-0496 critical CVE exact CVE_2014_0496
    PDF JavaScript combines app.addToolButton() and app.removeToolButton() with heap-spray shellcode markers — the public Adobe Reader/Acrobat ToolButton use-after-free exploit shape for CVE-2014-0496. (matched in decompressed stream)
  • Embedded PDF child has suspicious static findings critical PDF_EMBEDDED_CHILD_STATIC_TRIAGE
    PDF contains an embedded PDF stream whose extracted child matches suspicious or malicious PDF heuristics. Wrapper PDFs are commonly used to hide the actual exploit or lure payload from scanners that do not recursively inspect attachments.
  • 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.
  • unescape() call high PDF_UNESCAPE
    unescape() found — often used to decode shellcode in PDF JS exploits (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
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Remote GoTo action info PDF_GOTO_REMOTE
    PDF has GoToR/GoToE actions that reference sibling document files — typical of multi-part document bundles
  • 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://ns.adobe.com/xdp/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xci/3.0/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-template/3.0/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/

Extracted artifacts 5

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
javascript_obj0003_000.js
4732fce79f7a2910688292544fb1616978d9caede22f1f5093911e2f46f7b23d		 pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 3 at offset 0x9A 8191 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 13 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).
stream_000_off00002449.js
d1dfd457a2fdd3cec4091f689f39b85b35666aa5599ef3a8d5f9a80d1e2ce105		 decompressed-pdf-stream PDF FlateDecoded stream at offset 0x2449 1042 bytes
font_00_type1_off000028e5.bin
c6bf78478c9c4dd5b3b86554d34c78f847f70af4118f9ff083c1fccf0e8e932b		 pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (type1) at offset 0x28E5 97 bytes
font_01_type1_off00002b6c.bin
b749644b3e758e7335900ab2e7499eaa64b3a946849f1f8a0948287bdd96763d		 pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (type1) at offset 0x2B6C 144 bytes
magellanic_venus_657.pdf
f098877db7743761ae8a3591c73370a75db9c688eea2fbcfb4ae42076662165e		 pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 7 at offset 0x36A 11600 bytes

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