Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4a9ad7d7624ac141…

MALICIOUS

PDF

57.2 KB Created: 2013-05-09 15:13:30 +02:00 Authoring application: Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES 9.0 (via Adobe LiveCycle Forms 9.0) First seen: 2026-05-08
MD5: 2986989c7d3b7bafc01856b087a6f7d6 SHA-1: 7810755aa40e2c77ae8cc86632dc189cfec3fe72 SHA-256: 4a9ad7d7624ac141d609b12d5403005f52cbe1fac8b1dea6b368c3c306f661b2
80 Risk Score

🔏 Digital signature Signed

A signature covers the whole signed byte range — PDF JavaScript is never signed on its own — and does not by itself mean the document is safe.

Malware Insights

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

The PDF contains multiple embedded JavaScript streams and a decompressed script payload, strongly indicating malicious intent. The ML classifier also flagged this PDF with high confidence. The embedded scripts are likely responsible for downloading and executing a second-stage payload, as suggested by the 'PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD' heuristic. The presence of XFA forms and JavaScript actions points towards exploitation of PDF vulnerabilities.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 0.9823

Heuristics 7

  • 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.
  • JavaScript action low 1 related finding 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
  • Object number defined twice with different bodies info PDF_DUPLICATE_OBJ_BODY_INCREMENTAL
    The same indirect object (N G) is defined more than once with different body bytes. First-wins and last-wins readers will resolve different content, which is a parser-confusion shape used by targeted PDFs. Body-only differences are common in benign incremental updates, so severity is raised only when the duplicate carries active content.
  • 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.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html In PDF document text
    • http://www.adobe.com/support/products/In PDF document text
    • http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/In PDF document text
    • http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xfa/promoted-desc/In PDF document text
    • http://cgi.adobe.com/special/acrobat/updateReferenced by PDF JavaScript
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xci/1.0/Referenced by PDF JavaScript
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xci/2.6/Referenced by PDF JavaScript
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-template/2.8/Referenced by PDF JavaScript
    • http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtmlReferenced by PDF JavaScript
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/Referenced by PDF JavaScript
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-template/2.5/Referenced by PDF JavaScript
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-locale-set/2.7/In PDF document text
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-locale-set/2.1/In PDF document text
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-connection-set/2.8/In PDF document text
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-connection-set/2.4/In PDF document text

Related samples 8

Ranked by shared artifacts, heuristics, extracted URLs, CVEs, and signatures.

Full JSON: related samples API

Extracted artifacts 8

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
javascript_obj0023_000.js pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 23 at offset 0x2D8A 1363 bytes
SHA-256: 529357503ec67b623d2a12816cdeea62bd639f2b4ff4e568b01c96cc3f5bfc6f
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
if (typeof(xfa_installed) == "undefined" || typeof(xfa_version) == "undefined" || xfa_version < 2.8)
{
   if (app.viewerType == "Reader")
   {
      if (ADBE.Reader_Value_Asked != true)
      {
         if (app.viewerVersion < 9.0)
         {
            if (app.alert(ADBE.Reader_string_Need_New_Version_Msg, 1, 1) == 1)
               this.getURL(ADBE.Reader_Value_New_Version_URL + ADBE.SYSINFO, false);
            ADBE.Reader_Value_Asked = true;
         }
         else if (app.alert(ADBE.Viewer_string_Need_New_Version_Msg_Updater, 1, 1) == 1)
            app.findComponent({cType:"Plugin", cName:"XFA", cVer:"2.8"});
      }
   }
   else
   {
      if (ADBE.Viewer_Value_Asked != true)
      {
         if (app.viewerVersion < 7.0)
            app.response({cQuestion: ADBE.Viewer_string_Need_New_Version_Msg_Old, cDefault: ADBE.Viewer_Value_New_Version_URL + ADBE.SYSINFO, cTitle: ADBE.Viewer_string_Title});
		   else if (app.viewerVersion < 9.0)
         {
            if (app.alert(ADBE.Viewer_string_Need_New_Version_Msg, 1, 1) == 1)
               app.launchURL(ADBE.Viewer_Value_New_Version_URL + ADBE.SYSINFO, true);
         }
         else if (app.alert(ADBE.Viewer_string_Need_New_Version_Msg_Updater, 1, 1) == 1)
            app.findComponent({cType:"Plugin", cName:"XFA", cVer:"2.8"});
         ADBE.Viewer_Value_Asked = true;
      }
   }
}
javascript_obj0024_001.js pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 24 at offset 0x2F66 902 bytes
SHA-256: e985b5df65c8c3cf732a9074b575fbc594c1c7f0bccc0994182ec7e5c0f7308a
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
if (typeof(ADBE.Reader_Value_Asked) == "undefined")
   ADBE.Reader_Value_Asked = false;
if (typeof(ADBE.Viewer_Value_Asked) == "undefined")
   ADBE.Viewer_Value_Asked = false;
if (typeof(ADBE.Reader_Need_Version) == "undefined" || ADBE.Reader_Need_Version < 9.0)
{
   ADBE.Reader_Need_Version = 9.0;
   ADBE.Reader_Value_New_Version_URL = "http://cgi.adobe.com/special/acrobat/update";
   ADBE.SYSINFO = "?p=" + app.platform + "&v=" + app.viewerVersion + "&l=" + app.language + "&c=" + app.viewerType + "&r=" + ADBE.Reader_Need_Version;
}
if (typeof(ADBE.Viewer_Need_Version) == "undefined" || ADBE.Viewer_Need_Version < 9.0)
{
   ADBE.Viewer_Need_Version = 9.0;
   ADBE.Viewer_Value_New_Version_URL = "http://cgi.adobe.com/special/acrobat/update";
   ADBE.SYSINFO = "?p=" + app.platform + "&v=" + app.viewerVersion + "&l=" + app.language + "&c=" + app.viewerType + "&r=" + ADBE.Viewer_Need_Version;
}
javascript_obj0025_002.js pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 25 at offset 0x30BF 1169 bytes
SHA-256: 0ab3d232b2f2272b7039ee3e45d0be78ade06bb45327a799559ad4a592ef5a3d
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
if (typeof(this.ADBE) == "undefined")
   this.ADBE = new Object();
ADBE.LANGUAGE = "ENU";
ADBE.Viewer_string_Title = "Adobe Acrobat";
ADBE.Viewer_string_Update_Desc = "Adobe Interactive Forms Update";
ADBE.Reader_string_Need_New_Version_Msg = "This PDF file requires a newer version of Adobe Reader. Press OK to download the latest version or see your system administrator.";
ADBE.Viewer_string_Need_New_Version_Msg_Old = "This PDF requires a newer version of Acrobat. Copy this URL and paste into your browser or see your sys admin.";
ADBE.Viewer_string_Need_New_Version_Msg = "This PDF form requires a newer version of Adobe Acrobat. Without a newer version, the form may display, but may not work properly. Some form elements might not be visible at all. Click OK for more information on obtaining the latest version of Adobe Reader.";
ADBE.Viewer_string_Need_New_Version_Msg_Updater = "This PDF form requires a newer version of Adobe Acrobat. Without a newer version, the form may display, but may not work properly. Some form elements might not be visible at all. If an internet connection is available, clicking OK will download and install the latest version.";
stream_010_off000033e3.js decompressed-pdf-stream PDF FlateDecoded stream at offset 0x33E3 7681 bytes
SHA-256: 49be9ef8c0c480f7e41eddddf30b2327a798e2149a651e4790a2c5cf7be93a90
stream_011_off00003d5e.js decompressed-pdf-stream PDF FlateDecoded stream at offset 0x3D5E 69656 bytes
SHA-256: 6605750fede30b8fb74b0779013cfeac355b956a99ff78c22ae3f9908919cd29
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 long base64-like blob(s).
stream_012_off000082e3.bin decompressed-pdf-stream PDF FlateDecoded stream at offset 0x82E3 4823 bytes
SHA-256: b8e0ecf057b8d0fb39f019f129c1f0ea1cab104ffc9d91b3db8a1dff4f7eb471
stream_013_off000086fc.bin decompressed-pdf-stream PDF FlateDecoded stream at offset 0x86FC 164 bytes
SHA-256: ab840580042e7bf9ac9bdc944a07d49d5c71b5071421b69b2bb793d5d8f22b63
stream_015_off00008ad4.bin decompressed-pdf-stream PDF FlateDecoded stream at offset 0x8AD4 13286 bytes
SHA-256: 5dd17d7f279f3210bccbfd8cc1cb45e7a5b02d093cc129033253ec22eb155026
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
253 of 329 identifiers look randomly generated (e.g. 'tkzkbBG476CJYZKGOeTNkyR6Gy7a5mWV1AQVk2cV'); 4 string-concatenation chain(s) — consistent with name-mangling obfuscation. Carved artifact contains 1 long base64-like blob(s).

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