Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e473404189b6d289…

MALICIOUS

PDF

105.5 KB
MD5: b32d1aafa6b02f5cbda0ac7648611621 SHA-1: 6cca34792a76782bd816d6d8ea026bbed133011a SHA-256: e473404189b6d289482cc22e14151f991640c951fe82ae4b25f0099bf42a1fb1
168 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1566.002 Spearphishing Attachment

The PDF file contains embedded scripts and uses XFA forms, which are often leveraged for malicious purposes. The ML classifier strongly indicates maliciousness. The embedded script payload and the use of PDF unescape and hex decode filters suggest an attempt to obfuscate and deliver a secondary payload, likely executed via the embedded file.

Machine Learning

  • Nyx PDF Classifier malicious score 1.0000

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.
  • unescape() call high PDF_UNESCAPE
    unescape() found — often used to decode shellcode in PDF JS exploits (matched inside decoded stream)
  • 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.
  • ASCIIHexDecode filter (with exploit indicators) medium PDF_FILTER_HEX
    Hex-encoding filter present alongside exploit delivery indicators — often used to hide payload or shellcode bytes
  • 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 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_file_obj0008.bin
84aca4f5a9d5567c2ca5823b666afb7d11ff812b047108cf64f4a02f384f997c
pdf-embedded-file PDF EmbeddedFile object 8 at offset 0xE2 15322 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 eval/decoder/string-building token(s).