Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e4e4a581cd54263d…

MALICIOUS

PDF

12.8 KB
MD5: 3ec18b3a8a6c1565a3709410f64cb2ac SHA-1: 4ebab5b25b001f1a5b28bfd2e57420656a78d60e SHA-256: e4e4a581cd54263d3c8938f2d9bb7f422b8c7dc67eed2e83ae10f4a49e619478
272 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell T1059.003 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell T1059.007 Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript/JScript

The PDF file contains embedded JavaScript and triggers a critical heuristic for CVE-2010-0188, an Adobe Reader LibTIFF XFA exploit. This indicates the file is designed to leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code. The embedded JavaScript, though obfuscated, is likely responsible for downloading and executing a secondary payload, as suggested by the ClamAV detection on an extracted script artifact. The presence of an embedded URL further supports a delivery mechanism for malicious content.

Heuristics 10

  • 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.
  • XFA form contains executable script high CVE related PDF_XFA_SCRIPT
    PDF embeds an XFA form whose dataset contains a <script> or <xfa:script> block — XFA scripting has been the exploit primitive for several Adobe Reader RCEs (CVE-2010-0188 family, CVE-2018-4901, and others). Plain XFA without scripts is far less risky.
  • ClamAV: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-6136306-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Pdf.Exploit.Agent-6136306-0
  • ClamAV detection on extracted artifact critical EXTRACTED_FILE_CLAMAV
    ClamAV flagged at least one file extracted from inside this sample. Even when the wrapping document carries no AV detection of its own, a hit on the carved artifact is a strong indicator the sample is a delivery vehicle.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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-template/2.5/

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
embedded_pdf_script_00000374.bin
bdfd5a0d5cc29c68a86a7edd8c8c4778ebb140914f71731553864c6b04202b43
pdf-embedded-script PDF raw stream script payload at offset 0x374 12165 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Js.Exploit.HTML-28
Obfuscation or payload: unlikely