Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9c877c1bd419f44e…

MALICIOUS

PDF

12.8 KB
MD5: 1e4a5b14c56bb65285c5a9094b8289f0 SHA-1: b2dca66753944c5d08981ede878e4997ad3e7e8a SHA-256: 9c877c1bd419f44e87ceed02f708b7863e6f68cbc1ddf98f854bfccb012f6281
272 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell T1059.007 Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript

The PDF file contains embedded JavaScript and exploits CVE-2010-0188, a vulnerability in Adobe Reader's handling of XFA forms and LibTIFF. The embedded script is likely responsible for executing the exploit payload. ClamAV detections further confirm the malicious nature of the file, identifying it as Pdf.Exploit.Agent-6136306-0 and detecting a malicious JavaScript exploit in an extracted artifact.

Heuristics 10

  • 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.
  • XFA form contains executable script high CVE related PDF_XFA_SCRIPT
    PDF embeds an XFA form whose dataset contains a <script> or <xfa:script> block — XFA scripting has been the exploit primitive for several Adobe Reader RCEs (CVE-2010-0188 family, CVE-2018-4901, and others). Plain XFA without scripts is far less risky.
  • ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-6136306-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-6136306-0
  • 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.
  • Embedded script payload in PDF stream medium 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 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-template/2.5/

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_pdf_script_000003ce.bin
234b55c57fdd56e27c74fe4dca3f251ee651fc61ac5d3a4b4980e8052fea3e55
pdf-embedded-script PDF raw stream script payload at offset 0x3CE 12049 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Js.Exploit.HTML-28
Obfuscation or payload: unlikely