Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 cae85cd4dcb6ffeb…

MALICIOUS

PDF

30.8 KB
MD5: 0a846de9eb187ee7cd918ef12cc681ca SHA-1: 6ac3ece1aa0058099bfb712ae3fd7d53f0d74497 SHA-256: cae85cd4dcb6ffeb80e2b3c38487edf7c6aa62a1a667692c772b13a25c69d223
196 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The PDF file contains embedded JavaScript, indicated by PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD and PDF_XFA_SCRIPT heuristics. The script utilizes eval() and unescape() functions, suggesting it's designed to deobfuscate and execute malicious code. An embedded file, 'embedded_file_obj0008.bin', was also extracted, likely serving as the payload. The ML classifier strongly flags this PDF as malicious.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 1.0000

Heuristics 9

  • 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.
  • eval() call high PDF_EVAL
    eval() found — commonly used for obfuscated exploit execution
  • 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
2623c091560c4320130a7df68f89ca7791b3551bcba5e5c8bc9183a535ee8a44
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 8 at offset 0xC6 30830 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 4 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).