Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 b230d4f9d2d80484…

MALICIOUS

PDF

14.4 KB
MD5: 9c5eb1da1f913999c85b2a63d2f6b3aa SHA-1: 308f98801452f7209693e067dd5fc4c6ae277c43 SHA-256: b230d4f9d2d8048484cf4846e5effd0d1b812f34c91980e08b54e3d890e29082
146 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell

The sample is a PDF document that leverages the CVE-2010-0188 exploit, targeting Adobe Reader's LibTIFF XFA image parsing. The heuristic firings indicate an XFA form and an embedded file, with one embedded artifact identified as deobfuscated JavaScript. This JavaScript is likely responsible for downloading and executing a secondary payload, a common technique for initial access and further system compromise. The embedded URL, while not directly malicious in reputation, is associated with the XFA structure that facilitates the exploit.

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.
  • ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36962 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-36962
  • 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
  • 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.xfa.org/schema/xfa-locale-set/2.1/

Extracted artifacts 6

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_file_obj0041.bin
c06dcd026a7ea0536b63e07ce688691b585339a3ab7ff59065e546b56308c7bb
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 41 at offset 0x2C05 85 bytes
embedded_file_obj0042.bin
dda0835df994b8be920f715db36452f6cee7bb42bbc9c897f878a7b298ba8e91
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 42 at offset 0x2CB7 1029 bytes
embedded_file_obj0043.bin
b469dba3add6170154e93018f8390d773be29078f2ea1487657ef2f008f891e8
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 43 at offset 0x2ED0 1935 bytes
embedded_file_obj0044.bin
3dd68f00f4fcb366a2a3a17c65cb2626eeddf5ea5713302d374310561d810169
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 44 at offset 0x3352 144 bytes
embedded_file_obj0045.bin
10c03f88a5f0a0833dc5b2c8ac295b3a3c6f65e23889eb8cc1dc6fe29bf7f275
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 45 at offset 0x33FE 77 bytes
xfa_metadata_stage_000.js
699cd4a663945ca6e048264a92030770894e486df6c19c91a42da429e0c10028
deobfuscated-js XFA /creationdate base-26 decoded JavaScript (raw) at offset 0xE4B 2223 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 5 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 3 long base64-like blob(s).