Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 b9375ded0e78832a…

MALICIOUS

PDF

24.4 KB
MD5: 0524d0ccae2af3ac30ca90d21d7cc992 SHA-1: 1a78e824a898eafb940564efe8cb0a813038f233 SHA-256: b9375ded0e78832aa268cbe662c565e14515924903e275d3f5774d524e3f4e4d
156 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The PDF file contains an XFA form with embedded JavaScript, indicated by multiple high-severity heuristics including PDF_XFA_SCRIPT and PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD. The ML classifier strongly flagged this PDF as malicious. The embedded script likely attempts to exploit a vulnerability, potentially leading to the download and execution of a second-stage payload, as suggested by the PDF_EMBEDDED heuristic and the presence of an embedded file. The specific exploit and payload are not directly discernible from the provided evidence.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 1.0000

Heuristics 8

  • XFA form contains risky executable script high CVE related PDF_XFA_SCRIPT
    PDF embeds an XFA form whose script block contains exploit, submission/launch, or shell-execution primitives. Ordinary LiveCycle print/update scripts are left as generic XFA/JS signals unless stronger behavior is present.
  • unescape() call high PDF_UNESCAPE
    unescape() found — often used to decode shellcode in PDF JS exploits
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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://ns.adobe.com/xdp/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-template/2.5/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_file_obj0008.bin
6aacd0126b3d2f8696f3d5b7b857b295eddbdbba3f1e1a6b6438b4a5882c991d
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 8 at offset 0xC6 24266 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).