Malicious PDF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 f5c3b3977bc1f645…

MALICIOUS

PDF

12.8 KB
MD5: 55fab9762a2b78106858a358fd7c2940 SHA-1: c7dcd1ad0b4126eff73388fa4d120ea5268dbd3f SHA-256: f5c3b3977bc1f6454dea8d5a1135e9654514f243e6c64576263b083759fbe83c
272 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The PDF file contains an embedded XFA form that triggers a known exploit (CVE-2010-0188) in Adobe Reader. This exploit is designed to execute malicious JavaScript embedded within the form. The embedded script is likely responsible for downloading and executing a second-stage payload, as indicated by ClamAV detections on both the PDF and an extracted JavaScript artifact. The presence of JavaScript actions and embedded script payloads strongly suggests an exploit delivery mechanism.

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
64b1ccaceeadcd1b387bb312ec9b3d74d85b2c05e957d3cc89aadb83cf4a1f67
pdf-embedded-script PDF raw stream script payload at offset 0x374 12189 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Js.Exploit.HTML-28
Obfuscation or payload: unlikely