Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 acaa6ae229b000cd…

MALICIOUS

PDF

75.3 KB
MD5: 4aee665f95f04eb65868aa0efeabd2a5 SHA-1: ff647eb204e3f88af295d7e4ced1b84cd61d0905 SHA-256: acaa6ae229b000cde4f7bd432674807b490b2d6ca9bf2699cf74ed54772d5dd7
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The PDF file contains a critical PDF_LAUNCH heuristic firing, indicating a launch action. This action targets cmd.exe, suggesting an attempt to execute commands. Additionally, a PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD heuristic was triggered, confirming the presence of an embedded script. This script is likely responsible for the malicious behavior, potentially downloading and executing a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 4

  • Launch action critical PDF_LAUNCH
    PDF contains a /Launch action whose target is an executable, URL, or UNC path — can start an external application
  • /Launch action target: cmd.exe critical PDF_LAUNCH_COMMAND
    PDF /Launch action specifies an executable target — references a known-dangerous executable (cmd, PowerShell, etc.).
  • Embedded script payload in PDF stream high PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD
    PDF stream bytes contain script execution markers such as ActiveXObject/CreateObject, WScript.Shell, PowerShell, or shell-exec primitives. This is stronger than ordinary PDF JavaScript because it indicates a staged external script payload hidden in stream bytes.
  • Suspicious extracted artifact medium 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_pdf_script_00012570.bin
0123cc919fc7b185078e42293f97d50f1fe164089ad223bbf5a937d56cd5f973
pdf-embedded-script PDF raw stream script payload at offset 0x12570 74933 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 shell/COM execution token(s).