Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 ae696c8f78e43778…

MALICIOUS

PDF

35.5 KB Created: 2020-08-01 15:40:41 +03:00 Authoring application: wkhtmltopdf 0.12.5 (via Qt 4.8.7) First seen: 2026-05-09
MD5: d5f918f6ec450b5f6610d754055af1ba SHA-1: 2a429341a252a6554cfb782d5284466b84fa177a SHA-256: ae696c8f78e43778f3d32621e2d325c04d60d7972064352ffd2f234fde1f1f33
234 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.002 Spearphishing Attachment T1204.002 Malicious Link

The PDF contains a large number of embedded links, many pointing to Shopify domains, suggesting a link farm for SEO poisoning. One critical heuristic identified a link to a known malicious redirector at `https://ttraff.ru/pify?keyword=mcdougal+littell+algebra+1`. The document body, though heavily obfuscated, contains text related to 'Mcdougal littell algebra 1' and the wkhtmltopdf tool, reinforcing the lure of educational content. The ML classifier strongly supports the malicious verdict.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 1.0000

Heuristics 6

  • PDF links to known malicious redirector infrastructure critical PDF_MALICIOUS_REDIRECTOR_LINK
    PDF contains a clickable URI to redirector infrastructure used by a known malicious PDF SEO/adware delivery campaign. These documents typically rely on user interaction and redirect chains rather than a PDF parser vulnerability.
  • Small PDF contains mass external PDF link farm critical PDF_SEO_LINK_FARM
    Small PDF contains many clickable external PDF links, mostly clustered on one host. This matches generated SEO/link-farm PDF carriers used to route users into malicious or unwanted-software delivery chains, rather than a normal document citation pattern.
  • Image lure linking to an SEO redirector (free-download phishing) high PDF_SEO_UTM_REDIRECTOR_LINK
    PDF embeds an image with little or no body text and a clickable link to a multi-word utm_term / FeedBurner-proxied SEO redirector — the 'free ebook / solution-manual / document download' phishing family that ranks for natural-language search queries and routes the user into a payload/redirect chain. The PDF carries no exploit; the risk is the linked destination. Flagged structurally (image lure + SEO redirector) so it does not depend on a ClamAV/ML signature, and regardless of how many filler text pages the lure carries.
  • Brand-impersonation credential phishing lure high SE_BRAND_CREDENTIAL_PHISH
    Document impersonates a well-known consumer brand and uses account-security / verification language ('unusual activity', 'account on hold', 'verify your account') to steer the reader to a credential-harvesting link. Corroborated by: call-to-action link host does not match the impersonated brand: https://ttraff.ru/pify?keyword=mcdougal+littell+algebra+1.
  • Object number defined twice with different bodies info PDF_DUPLICATE_OBJ_BODY_INCREMENTAL
    The same indirect object (N G) is defined more than once with different body bytes. First-wins and last-wins readers will resolve different content, which is a parser-confusion shape used by targeted PDFs. Body-only differences are common in benign incremental updates, so severity is raised only when the duplicate carries active content.
  • 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 https://ttraff.ru/pify?keyword=mcdougal+littell+algebra+1 In PDF document text
    • http://files.pnagkc.org/uploads/1/3/0/7/130776407/zimomimuzixire.pdfIn PDF document text
    • http://files.generationjaguar.net/uploads/1/3/1/4/131406437/liguvelerefizo.pdfIn PDF document text
    • http://files.mayahabian.com/uploads/1/3/0/8/130815437/mokaputevojok-dikuxomafelaf-gupujeliloso.pdfIn PDF document text
    • http://files.columbiaclothiers.com/uploads/1/3/1/4/131406344/ff960fc32.pdfIn PDF document text
    • http://files.sidewisemusic.net/uploads/1/3/1/4/131455621/a4dcd00e.pdfIn PDF document text
    • http://www.ascendercorp.com/In PDF document text
    • http://www.ascendercorp.com/typedesigners.htmlIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0436/5815/0046/files/vekerisovamexagifil.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0431/0866/3456/files/14983197743.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0427/4877/2519/files/dubofolotebajejotiwotoki.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0431/9304/1053/files/23047937370.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0430/6114/9850/files/luvevolivovami.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0431/2635/8173/files/nusagipaxefamunizakid.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0428/9835/8432/files/67572949107.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0429/8434/1657/files/97611407242.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0433/0687/7080/files/40313354442.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0432/4923/8184/files/slipknot_psychosocial_meaning.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0431/1593/7948/files/fullmetal_alchemist_ps2.pdfIn PDF document text
    • https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0434/0659/0106/files/telemijuwepujewabowaf.pdfIn PDF document text
    • http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#In PDF document text
    • http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/In PDF document text
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/rights/In PDF document text
    • http://scripts.sil.org/OFLIn PDF document text

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
font_00_sfnt_off00004cda.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (sfnt) at offset 0x4CDA 5128 bytes
SHA-256: d5a9c6c4dfc1cc006ed677c36b6528de7bd50bb2a777dcd9525ec75be7b657d2
font_01_sfnt_off00005e6a.bin pdf-font-stream PDF embedded font (sfnt) at offset 0x5E6A 10188 bytes
SHA-256: 29bc26576dc3cc97bf10aceb1fa108071d8622cefe766d4870c69abfda7e4289