Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9c040df32226f0ad…

MALICIOUS

PDF

23.6 KB
MD5: ba8db1ffd0db4e23fa196bc78f572232 SHA-1: b6017cc27d24adce0531aad1b541e03741eee31a SHA-256: 9c040df32226f0ad6cede7a30963728093fdb884263ce9b63bfe71d6d05668ed
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The PDF contains embedded JavaScript, which is heavily obfuscated and uses String.fromCharCode to decode its payload. The ML classifier and heuristics strongly indicate malicious intent. The deobfuscated JavaScript appears to be responsible for downloading and executing a second-stage payload, likely from a remote source, which is a common technique for malware delivery.

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
b5aed22c99d8530eba114e03c059889cc865dc0022e6a787426b24460978dfe9
pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 99 at offset 0x548D 8789 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
b89069902ceb12dfc0e9962f828a7f79e075dbec13ec9b105eef6386574b0536
deobfuscated-js PDF JavaScript deobfuscation pass 40543 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).