Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 68135544a247fc76…

MALICIOUS

PDF

10.0 KB Created: 2009-10-04 13:45:55 Authoring application: Scribus 1.3.5svn (via Scribus PDF Library 1.3.5svn)
MD5: bea19f8a601018322f5f97f0be50adfa SHA-1: 6ea7dae7c48d201d873e3f1b8e43d051de081843 SHA-256: 68135544a247fc769d5de5b1359e365f8acfedcd6eadaac02738c07196517b87
156 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

This PDF file contains embedded JavaScript that utilizes unescape() and String.fromCharCode() functions, indicating obfuscation and potential exploit activity. The ML classifier also flagged this PDF as malicious with high confidence. The script appears to be designed to download and execute a second-stage payload, likely leveraging a known PDF vulnerability.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 1.0000

Heuristics 6

  • 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.
  • unescape() call high PDF_UNESCAPE
    unescape() found — often used to decode shellcode in PDF JS exploits (matched inside decoded stream)
  • 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)
  • 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
javascript_obj0013_001.js
b2e5d9cbf8ae0ee252606b8ce78af480f3f46eb67fb01b0f80aa14978bcd2a81
pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 13 at offset 0x1917 14083 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 3 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).