Beware of MalDoc in PDF: A New Polyglot Attack Allowing Attackers to Evade Antivirus

[silversurfer]

Content source

https://thehackernews.com/2023/09/beware-of-maldoc-in-pdf-new-polyglot.html

Cybersecurity researchers have called attention to a new antivirus evasion technique that involves embedding a malicious Microsoft Word file into a PDF file.

The sneaky method, dubbed MalDoc in PDF by JPCERT/CC, is said to have been employed in an in-the-wild attack in July 2023.

"A file created with MalDoc in PDF can be opened in Word even though it has magic numbers and file structure of PDF," researchers Yuma Masubuchi and Kota Kino said. "If the file has a configured macro, by opening it in Word, VBS runs and performs malicious behaviors."

Such specially crafted files are called polyglots as they are a legitimate form of multiple different file types, in this case, both PDF and Word (DOC).

This entails adding an MHT file created in Word and with a macro attached after the PDF file object. The end result is a valid PDF file that can also be opened in the Word application.

Put differently; the PDF document embeds within itself a Word document with a VBS macro that's designed to download and install an MSI malware file if opened as a .DOC file in Microsoft Office. It's not immediately clear what malware was distributed in this fashion.

 

[Andy Ful]

The technique described in this article does not bypass the setting that disables auto-execution in Word macro. However, since the files are recognized as PDFs, you should be careful about the detection results if you are performing automated malware analysis using some tools, sandbox, etc.

MalDoc in PDF - Detection bypass by embedding a malicious Word file into a PDF file – - JPCERT/CC Eyes

JPCERT/CC has confirmed that a new technique was used in an attack that occurred in July, which bypasses detection by embedding a malicious Word file into a PDF file. This blog article calls the technique “MalDoc in PDF” hereafter and...

blogs.jpcert.or.jp