Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 55559108f3f47bc8…

MALICIOUS

PDF

102.9 KB
MD5: 5d37cd1e7796cde7b0b438ad1b4d2f1e SHA-1: 6fcdb71160ea6bf02a8b676e64909af02c87f2c6 SHA-256: 55559108f3f47bc82533b61977ae386b82732529b108895f5b2086bf83a48a59
138 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1566.002 Spearphishing Attachment

The PDF file contains multiple indicators of malicious activity, including embedded files and scripts, and the use of unescape and hex decoding filters. The presence of XFA forms with executable scripts suggests an attempt to exploit PDF vulnerabilities. The primary attack vector appears to be the execution of an embedded script payload, likely designed to download and execute a second-stage payload from the extracted artifact 'embedded_file_obj0008.bin'.

Heuristics 7

  • XFA form contains risky executable script high CVE related PDF_XFA_SCRIPT
    PDF embeds an XFA form whose script block contains exploit, submission/launch, or shell-execution primitives. Ordinary LiveCycle print/update scripts are left as generic XFA/JS signals unless stronger behavior is present.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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_obj0008.bin
efdfc29fbf611b1594bd399e43720d3fd73734b72b2e516e87c8fdb0cee84168
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 8 at offset 0xE2 14938 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).