Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 cc980d23bf022042…

MALICIOUS

PDF

16.8 KB
MD5: 639b4f14018c4dcc1b994d46aecaf62c SHA-1: 12eb0aa51d9f82e7ae784f25fc04397f2adbde1d SHA-256: cc980d23bf0220424fb5faf2efa469b9163ef65d820ff4d9d6c256070c50232d
132 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File Execution: Malicious JavaScript

The PDF file contains XFA (XML Forms Architecture) which is known to be vulnerable to heap spray attacks. The heuristic 'PDF_XFA_HEAP_SPRAY' indicates the presence of exploit code designed to trigger this vulnerability. Additionally, 'PDF_XFA_SCRIPT' and 'PDF_EMBEDDED_SCRIPT_PAYLOAD' confirm that executable script is embedded within the XFA form. This script is likely designed to download and execute a second-stage payload, a common technique for initial access.

Heuristics 7

  • 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.
  • XFA JavaScript heap-spray exploit code critical PDF_XFA_HEAP_SPRAY
    PDF contains XFA script content with heap-spray or shellcode-like JavaScript markers such as large encoded word sequences, util.pack, large arrays, or spray variable names. This is a weaponised Adobe Reader exploit pattern, not a normal interactive form.
  • 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.
  • XFA form low PDF_XFA
    PDF uses XML Forms Architecture — can contain script logic
  • PDF differential parser failed info PDF_DIFFERENTIAL_PARSE_FAILED
    The cross-check parser (pdfminer.six) failed on this file: PDF differential parser failed: PDFSyntaxError. Static heuristics still ran and any of their findings above are valid; only the differential cross-check signal is missing.
  • 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/xci/1.0/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-template/2.5/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xtd/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xfdf/
    • http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-form/2.8/

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_pdf_script_00000af5.bin
557f551cfb1138f99b261f661a2ef498ea7e482732e7e4011f92d3f7a994a217
pdf-embedded-script PDF raw stream script payload at offset 0xAF5 15095 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 5 long base64-like blob(s).