Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 8edc9e5b1a974c53…

MALICIOUS

PDF

9.1 KB First seen: 2026-05-08
MD5: 9284be6e9061695f7b778f41066fa263 SHA-1: 8b110460745ee6b2f4c987ec194d638c45fbc56d SHA-256: 8edc9e5b1a974c539b3cebc2927f390503d81b59cd214cf15802f4c8f894d465
138 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File T1566.002 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.001 PowerShell

The PDF exhibits multiple indicators of malicious intent, including embedded files and a script payload. The presence of an embedded script payload (PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD) strongly suggests an attempt to execute malicious code. The embedded URL, while seemingly benign, is often used in conjunction with malicious PDFs to host or redirect to further stages of an attack. The XFA form and AcroForm button heuristics further indicate a manipulated document structure intended for exploitation.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 1.0000

Heuristics 7

  • Adobe Reader LibTIFF XFA image exploit — CVE-2010-0188 critical CVE likely CVE_2010_0188
    PDF contains the CVE-2010-0188 exploit template: XFA JavaScript heap-spray setup, a generated TIFF image payload, and assignment of that TIFF data to an XFA image field rawValue to trigger Adobe Reader's LibTIFF parser.
  • Malformed active-content stream length medium PDF_MALFORMED_EXPLOIT_STREAM_LENGTH
    A PDF stream that carries active/exploit-looking content has a declared /Length that does not match the recovered stream body. Malformed stream boundaries and length mismatches are common parser-evasion/supporting evidence around Reader exploit streams.
  • 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
  • AcroForm button with action trigger low PDF_ACROFORM_BUTTON
    PDF contains a /Btn form field together with a SubmitForm/URI/Launch/JS trigger — this is the building block of fake 'Download' or 'Open' button overlays used in PDF phishing lures
  • Embedded script payload in PDF stream info PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD
    PDF stream bytes contain an HTML/XFA <script> tag without accompanying Windows shell-execution primitives — common in accessible XFA forms but worth surfacing for analyst review.
  • 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.xfa.org/schema/xfa-locale-set/2.1/ In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xdp/In PDF document text
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xci/1.0/In PDF document text
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/In PDF document text

Extracted artifacts 5

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_file_obj0041.bin pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 41 at offset 0xCF3 85 bytes
SHA-256: c06dcd026a7ea0536b63e07ce688691b585339a3ab7ff59065e546b56308c7bb
embedded_file_obj0042.bin pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 42 at offset 0xDA5 1029 bytes
SHA-256: dda0835df994b8be920f715db36452f6cee7bb42bbc9c897f878a7b298ba8e91
embedded_file_obj0111.bin pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 111 at offset 0xFBF 57204 bytes
SHA-256: d8e272d6f240f6f349dd048f2cebeddeafed70e62be0276881abb47d0a6a7c3f
embedded_file_obj0044.bin pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 44 at offset 0x1F05 144 bytes
SHA-256: 3dd68f00f4fcb366a2a3a17c65cb2626eeddf5ea5713302d374310561d810169
embedded_file_obj0045.bin pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 45 at offset 0x1FB2 77 bytes
SHA-256: 10c03f88a5f0a0833dc5b2c8ac295b3a3c6f65e23889eb8cc1dc6fe29bf7f275