Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 6fb9ca6938198677…

MALICIOUS

PDF

9.9 KB Created: 2009-10-04 13:45:55 Authoring application: Scribus 1.3.5svn (via Scribus PDF Library 1.3.5svn)
MD5: 395e5ef9ef03c2948c216aaa1efec992 SHA-1: edee3762c695c264d38717bec1a200988388ae39 SHA-256: 6fb9ca6938198677d9952079d155782ea7f9a459173fd26c0876486a68e638bc
156 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The PDF contains embedded JavaScript that utilizes unescape and String.fromCharCode functions, indicative of obfuscation and exploit code. The ML classifier strongly flags this PDF as malicious. The script likely downloads and executes a second-stage payload, aligning with common PDF-based malware delivery techniques.

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
b7540e7068939903ade1137ae57038807b53c2e8d108ead2e6477843dbe15a1d
pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 13 at offset 0x1917 11453 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 3 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).