Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 c166ed9c0303a481…

MALICIOUS

PDF

3.5 KB Authoring application: hXr (via va)
MD5: 8bad8384fa16c22344491ab5d8a8160d SHA-1: 38e13c34f7193cce83b95e97e303228073d2e2c4 SHA-256: c166ed9c0303a481b03be0c4488d2a91df6ae9a9ad0b43ed5c5083bf3f3867a4
278 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The PDF file contains XFA forms with embedded JavaScript that exploits multiple known Adobe Reader vulnerabilities including CVE-2009-4324, CVE-2009-0927, CVE-2007-5659, and CVE-2008-2992. The script decodes a hex string and executes it, likely to download and run a second-stage payload. An embedded file named 'embedded_file_obj0004.bin' was also extracted.

Heuristics 8

  • media.newPlayer — CVE-2009-4324 critical CVE exact CVE_2009_4324
    PDF JavaScript calls media.newPlayer — CVE-2009-4324 is a use-after-free in Adobe Reader's multimedia plugin triggered by media.newPlayer(). Actively exploited as a zero-day in December 2009. (identified after JavaScript deobfuscation)
  • Collab.getIcon — CVE-2009-0927 critical CVE exact CVE_2009_0927
    PDF JavaScript calls Collab.getIcon — CVE-2009-0927 is a stack buffer overflow in Adobe Reader triggered by Collab.getIcon() with a crafted argument. Allows arbitrary code execution. (identified after JavaScript deobfuscation)
  • 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)
  • util.printf — CVE-2008-2992 critical CVE exact CVE_2008_2992
    PDF JavaScript calls util.printf() — CVE-2008-2992 is a stack buffer overflow in Adobe Reader triggered by a long format-specifier argument. Widely exploited in the wild after disclosure. (identified after JavaScript deobfuscation)
  • 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
  • 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
embedded_file_obj0004.bin
913edb0fd21b9e6c9c9fed82792a744b4e7574faebff8edf6766a2aacf1cec4c
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 4 at offset 0xDF 11257 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 long base64-like blob(s).
xfa_hex_stage_000.js
6e482c11de20c57af4f5ed3972931d7a2025290d5e5c67d65a325fed09f90513
deobfuscated-js XFA hex-decoded JavaScript (decompressed, direct) at offset 0x664 4807 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 12 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 1 long base64-like blob(s).