Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 b9768e3077dfc3a3…

MALICIOUS

PDF

13.2 KB
MD5: 8a730a9e5b92279d8363c5bf5d3cbf5d SHA-1: bb732a2eea982bfe8e15a7b9cc67e0f0167f80f2 SHA-256: b9768e3077dfc3a35cb4c75f81906a8f95712aebad3ed5ac66ea7a73ed37a67e
186 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.001 JavaScript T1204.001 Malicious Link T1204.002 Malicious File

The PDF file contains obfuscated JavaScript that is XOR-encoded and uses String.fromCharCode, indicative of a stager. Critical heuristics confirm the use of a binary-XOR JavaScript stager and specifically identify the CVE-2007-5659 exploit targeting Adobe Reader's Collab.collectEmailInfo function. This suggests the primary goal is to leverage this known vulnerability to execute a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 7

  • Collab.collectEmailInfo — CVE-2007-5659 critical CVE exact CVE_2007_5659
    PDF JavaScript calls Collab.collectEmailInfo — CVE-2007-5659 is a buffer overflow in Adobe Reader triggered by a long argument or heap-sprayed message field passed to Collab.collectEmailInfo(). Part of a series of Acrobat JS API exploits. (identified after JavaScript deobfuscation)
  • ClamAV: Heuristics.PDF.ObfuscatedNameObject critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Heuristics.PDF.ObfuscatedNameObject
  • Binary-XOR JavaScript stager high PDF_BINARY_XOR_JS_STAGER
    PDF JavaScript stores viewer-version payload branches as long binary digit strings, XORs each bit pair, converts 8-bit chunks with String.fromCharCode, and evals the recovered exploit stage.
  • 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.
  • 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. (matched inside decoded stream)
  • 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.

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
javascript_obj0049_000.js
bbde114bb4aed7c20a9ff30ed6eb5104f53c65c0092d8cc29aee57da4fee7f51
pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 49 at offset 0xA 78556 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 6 long base64-like blob(s).
binary_xor_stage_000.js
4fd1de754d5cbfb13325d7f641b85a861dd4e60a490ccd6733c27a708ccefc92
deobfuscated-js binary-XOR decoded JavaScript at offset 0x3F8 1312 bytes