Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 61f016efb139e430…

MALICIOUS

PDF

23.6 KB
MD5: 3b7d46a965b277b67039530a78ebaa73 SHA-1: 053d19b98243200e6162cdd4171d2462684c6701 SHA-256: 61f016efb139e43081bc2da852e928bbafc2cb3474ab91d797cad1c441cbaf1f
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.007 JavaScript T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The PDF contains embedded JavaScript, which is heavily obfuscated and uses String.fromCharCode. The ML classifier and heuristics strongly indicate maliciousness. The deobfuscated JavaScript likely downloads and executes a second-stage payload, as evidenced by the 'PDF JavaScript exploit cluster' and 'ML_NYX_PDF_MALICIOUS' firings. The presence of embedded JavaScript points to T1059.007 (JavaScript) and T1203 (Exploitation for Client Execution).

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 0.9994

Heuristics 7

  • PDF JavaScript exploit cluster critical PDF_JS_EXPLOIT_CLUSTER
    PDF combines an executable JavaScript/action surface with exploit staging indicators such as eval/unescape/fromCharCode, XFA script content, or a related CVE pattern. Benign form JavaScript remains low-severity, but this correlated cluster is high-confidence malicious behavior.
  • 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)
  • PDF paints image(s) but contains no text operators info PDF_IMAGE_ONLY_LURE
    PDF has 1 image XObject(s) and the content stream contains no text-emitting operators (BT/ET, Tj, TJ, ', ") in either raw bytes or decompressed streams — this is the screenshot-as-PDF pattern used to bypass text-based scanners and to deliver instructions purely through rendered pixels. It is informational unless paired with invisible links or risky URI context.
  • 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.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/
    • http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
javascript_obj0099_000.js
35c0f0f970b3ea9ae6a4a326a195ceaa67cbe565203f0966f94d675f71c0418f
pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 99 at offset 0x548D 8609 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 9 long base64-like blob(s).
deobfuscated.js
e9b463168881f116871c77d89b147ffe9ba210c1aaf5fbbe040df828db3cc062
deobfuscated-js PDF JavaScript deobfuscation pass 40813 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 4 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 18 long base64-like blob(s).