Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 c2651d576a2c38b8…

MALICIOUS

PDF

14.4 KB
MD5: 4bb8396aa82e2f297d4e33a8fa30e0dd SHA-1: 138d523f06a7579b86028dfd56bb4777c7c7884e SHA-256: c2651d576a2c38b85cce1f11c5f4dc4ea4137476a6fecbd867b2da32397954fa
204 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is a PDF document that exploits CVE-2010-0188, a known vulnerability in Adobe Reader related to XFA forms. Static analysis detected embedded JavaScript and an extracted file, both flagged as suspicious. The embedded JavaScript, deobfuscated as xfa_metadata_stage_000.js, likely contains code to download and execute a second-stage payload. The presence of the embedded URL and the exploit technique strongly suggest a malicious intent to compromise the user's system.

Heuristics 8

  • 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
  • Suspicious extracted artifact high 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.
  • String.fromCharCode medium PDF_FROMCHARCODE
    String.fromCharCode found — used to construct payload strings dynamically (matched inside decoded stream)
  • 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
  • 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 0x2B68 85 bytes
embedded_file_obj0042.bin
dda0835df994b8be920f715db36452f6cee7bb42bbc9c897f878a7b298ba8e91
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 42 at offset 0x2C1A 1029 bytes
embedded_file_obj0043.bin
14b85e4abad481255337e5fe1028ae8ec2db3894f103659da4a7fb62b1acfa97
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 43 at offset 0x2E33 1700 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).
embedded_file_obj0044.bin
3dd68f00f4fcb366a2a3a17c65cb2626eeddf5ea5713302d374310561d810169
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 44 at offset 0x31E2 144 bytes
embedded_file_obj0045.bin
10c03f88a5f0a0833dc5b2c8ac295b3a3c6f65e23889eb8cc1dc6fe29bf7f275
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 45 at offset 0x328E 77 bytes
xfa_metadata_stage_000.js
4a7e0403ed392ad3241ae2457e555b77a0db7ce2becd8a45852a009150f90bb7
deobfuscated-js XFA /keywords base-28 decoded JavaScript (raw) at offset 0x128A 2181 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).