Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 7aa8233148c6ba0c…

MALICIOUS

PDF

4.0 KB
MD5: bcf156bda5b49e3d94d595dbf894ac5f SHA-1: d1b1e4bc2367fe87fd1b27c5d2819336669b1185 SHA-256: 7aa8233148c6ba0cbef8a64280ed45e99cdd1353ebbda2f148296a373c61dd5e
218 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information

The PDF file contains an embedded TIFF image that exploits CVE-2010-0188 in Adobe Reader. This is further indicated by the ClamAV detection of 'Pdf.Exploit.Pidief-3' on both the main file and an extracted artifact. The use of ASCIIHexDecode filter suggests obfuscation techniques were employed to hide the exploit payload.

Heuristics 7

  • Adobe Reader LibTIFF XFA image exploit — CVE-2010-0188 critical CVE likely CVE_2010_0188
    PDF contains XFA image data with an inline crafted TIFF payload and shellcode/delivery markers. This is the data-bound variant of the CVE-2010-0188 Adobe Reader LibTIFF/XFA exploit shape.
  • ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Pidief-3 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Exploit.Pidief-3
  • ClamAV detection on extracted artifact critical EXTRACTED_FILE_CLAMAV
    ClamAV flagged at least one file extracted from inside this sample. Even when the wrapping document carries no AV detection of its own, a hit on the carved artifact is a strong indicator the sample is a delivery vehicle.
  • 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_obj0001.bin
c3474e8104d9425206c47157386da668b10e0460ba55564401001986d4c87d22
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 1 at offset 0x6C 13441 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Pidief-3
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 long base64-like blob(s).