Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 52fe2b552f670a6b…

MALICIOUS

PDF

40.4 KB
MD5: c6009972985b383f58d1dcc1f66f6cd2 SHA-1: de66ac9bcd2e506ae78604239dc5984e9e866e74 SHA-256: 52fe2b552f670a6b146bdcde3120472621aaa3f6a09ecc2f9f94ec000384ab69
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1204.002 Malicious File T1566 Phishing T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1566.002 Spearphishing Link

The PDF file contains an embedded object that triggers the CVE-2010-0188 exploit in Adobe Reader. This exploit is known to deliver a second-stage payload. ClamAV also detected this file as Pdf.Exploit.Dropped-90, further indicating its malicious nature.

Heuristics 7

  • Adobe Reader LibTIFF XFA image exploit — CVE-2010-0188 critical CVE likely CVE_2010_0188
    PDF contains XFA image data with an inline crafted TIFF payload and shellcode/delivery markers. This is the data-bound variant of the CVE-2010-0188 Adobe Reader LibTIFF/XFA exploit shape.
  • ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Dropped-90 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Exploit.Dropped-90
  • 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
  • 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
  • PDF differential parser failed info PDF_DIFFERENTIAL_PARSE_FAILED
    The cross-check parser (pdfminer.six) failed on this file: PDF differential parser failed: PSSyntaxError. 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.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_file_obj0001.bin
30ffad16c81d28ce51f4a153f69a78208ead0366f0525ceed86d19067a36e33b
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 1 at offset 0x5B 13415 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 long base64-like blob(s).