Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4a8d3564dcd3998e…

MALICIOUS

PDF

51.6 KB
MD5: 9233545cf9ec6362834eb5f4d485b73e SHA-1: fef4893109c7a3b329ce715145cfbd52d9525276 SHA-256: 4a8d3564dcd3998ee852b939e30706c2e0eeb153b98cb86964af59c139e1cb01
232 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The PDF file contains XFA (XML Forms Architecture) data and triggers a critical heuristic for CVE-2010-0188, an Adobe Reader exploit. A JavaScript stager was extracted and deobfuscated, indicating it's designed to download and execute a secondary payload. ClamAV detections further confirm the malicious nature of the file and its extracted components. The embedded URL is likely related to the XFA schema but is not directly indicative of the payload's origin.

Heuristics 8

  • Adobe Reader LibTIFF XFA image exploit — CVE-2010-0188 critical CVE likely CVE_2010_0188
    PDF contains the CVE-2010-0188 exploit template: XFA JavaScript heap-spray setup, a generated TIFF image payload, and assignment of that TIFF data to an XFA image field rawValue to trigger Adobe Reader's LibTIFF parser.
  • ClamAV: Js.Exploit.HTML-30 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Js.Exploit.HTML-30
  • ClamAV detection on extracted artifact critical EXTRACTED_FILE_CLAMAV
    ClamAV flagged at least one file extracted from inside this sample. Even when the wrapping document carries no AV detection of its own, a hit on the carved artifact is a strong indicator the sample is a delivery vehicle.
  • XFA numeric JavaScript stager high PDF_XFA_NUMERIC_JS_STAGER
    PDF XFA script reconstructs a hidden JavaScript stage from numeric field data or a character table, then evals the result. The decoder is gated on XFA script, numeric staging, and recovered exploit-like JavaScript or shellcode markers.
  • XFA form low PDF_XFA
    PDF uses XML Forms Architecture — can contain script logic
  • PDF differential parser failed info PDF_DIFFERENTIAL_PARSE_FAILED
    The cross-check parser (pdfminer.six) failed on this file: PDF differential parser failed: PSEOF. Static heuristics still ran and any of their findings above are valid; only the differential cross-check signal is missing.
  • 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.xfa.org/schema/xfa-template/2.5/

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xfa_numeric_stage_000.js
99da8947d205c2ab6970f247062454f8bf7db605c9383de5693c77224c365b9d
deobfuscated-js XFA replacement character-table decoded JavaScript (raw) at offset 0x30C 3779 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36962
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 5 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 3 long base64-like blob(s).