Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 cfb2127232fed3fe…

MALICIOUS

PDF

23.6 KB
MD5: 1e4a0b917b5cf22f1bf35dcdc312c345 SHA-1: c253be30f0eef57ace2d051e9d9f94d0cbf9f333 SHA-256: cfb2127232fed3fefee7f31140df1109287c57e275b59040b38b139441d87c55
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The PDF contains embedded JavaScript that is heavily obfuscated. Heuristics indicate this JavaScript is part of an exploit cluster, likely leveraging String.fromCharCode for deobfuscation. The ML classifier strongly flags this PDF as malicious. The deobfuscated JavaScript, though truncated, suggests it is designed to download and execute further malicious content. The presence of extracted JavaScript files and the PDF_JS_EXPLOIT_CLUSTER heuristic point to a common PDF-based malware delivery technique.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 0.9994

Heuristics 7

  • PDF JavaScript exploit cluster critical PDF_JS_EXPLOIT_CLUSTER
    PDF combines an executable JavaScript/action surface with exploit staging indicators such as eval/unescape/fromCharCode, XFA script content, or a related CVE pattern. Benign form JavaScript remains low-severity, but this correlated cluster is high-confidence malicious behavior.
  • 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)
  • PDF paints image(s) but contains no text operators info PDF_IMAGE_ONLY_LURE
    PDF has 1 image XObject(s) and the content stream contains no text-emitting operators (BT/ET, Tj, TJ, ', ") in either raw bytes or decompressed streams — this is the screenshot-as-PDF pattern used to bypass text-based scanners and to deliver instructions purely through rendered pixels. It is informational unless paired with invisible links or risky URI context.
  • 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://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/
    • http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
javascript_obj0099_000.js
731c1daf3d7e6238f718d6d5dc6954767708f64c7193ca4b0e7114d70b907a21
pdf-javascript-stream PDF /JS object 99 at offset 0x548D 8681 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 9 long base64-like blob(s).
deobfuscated.js
ccb7104469e6f8d58c7a50a51f54874d951c7f1f9a8af3735a74400a413e1b4f
deobfuscated-js PDF JavaScript deobfuscation pass 41070 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 4 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 18 long base64-like blob(s).