Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 5872c8179491a8e8…

MALICIOUS

PDF

3.8 KB
MD5: 4eb4406eb4226e0a5b253d2714ede139 SHA-1: 8b242f492fce1d3b8d45da3c14da4d20c05d8a34 SHA-256: 5872c8179491a8e8113df752b39078f7091a216058ee7c98afd1db767e6c3705
112 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The critical ClamAV heuristic indicates this PDF is malicious, specifically identified as Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36178. Low-severity heuristics for JavaScript actions, embedded JS streams, and string manipulation functions like fromCharCode, combined with PDF filters like ASCIIHexDecode and ASCII85Decode, suggest an exploit attempting to execute embedded JavaScript. The lack of readable document body text prevents a more specific determination of the lure, but the exploit indicators are strong.

Heuristics 6

  • ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36178 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36178
  • 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
  • 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.
  • String.fromCharCode low PDF_FROMCHARCODE
    String.fromCharCode found — used to construct payload strings dynamically. Common in benign JavaScript libraries for codepoint manipulation, so this alone is informational; weaponised use is also caught by the dedicated fromCharCode-stage and exploit-shape rules. (matched inside decoded stream)
  • ASCII85Decode filter (with exploit indicators) low PDF_FILTER_85
    ASCII85 encoding filter present alongside exploit delivery indicators — uncommon outside of obfuscation