• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits

 | 

Google fined $314M for misusing idle Android users' data

 | 

A flaw in Catwatchful spyware exposed logins of +62,000 users

 | 

China-linked group Houken hit French organizations using zero-days

 | 

Cybercriminals Target Brazil: 248,725 Exposed in CIEE One Data Breach

 | 

Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace

 | 

Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses

 | 

Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager

 | 

U.S. Sanctions Russia's Aeza Group for aiding crooks with bulletproof hosting

 | 

Qantas confirms customer data breach amid Scattered Spider attacks

 | 

CVE-2025-6554 is the fourth Chrome zero-day patched by Google in 2025

 | 

U.S. CISA adds TeleMessage TM SGNL flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

A sophisticated cyberattack hit the International Criminal Court

 | 

Esse Health data breach impacted 263,000 individuals

 | 

Europol dismantles €460M crypto scam targeting 5,000 victims worldwide

 | 

CISA and U.S. Agencies warn of ongoing Iranian cyber threats to critical infrastructure

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Canada bans Hikvision over national security concerns

 | 

Denmark moves to protect personal identity from deepfakes with new copyright law

 | 

Ahold Delhaize data breach affected over 2.2 Million individuals

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Analyzing Phishing attacks that use malicious PDFs

Analyzing Phishing attacks that use malicious PDFs

Pierluigi Paganini February 13, 2022

Cybersecurity researchers Zoziel Pinto Freire analyzed the use of weaponized PDFs in phishing attacks

Every day everybody receives many phishing attacks with malicious docs or PDFs. I decided to take a look at one of these files. I did a static analysis and I went straight to the point to make this reading simple and fast.

Here is the received email as it was from the Caixa Economica Federal bank, but we can see the sender uses Gmail services and a strange name.

phishing PDFs

I verified this e-mail header using MXtoolbox, and we can see the IP used by the sender (attacker).

phishing PDFs

Below is the reputation of the IP used by the attacker.

phishing PDFs

We can see this IP has a lot of mentions about malicious activities.

phishing PDFs

I downloaded this file in my VPS (Kali Linux) and used peepdf to do an analysis of the file structure, and I found 2 URIs in objects 3 and 5.

phishing PDFs

After I checked objects 3 and 5 using pdf-parser, I discovered a malicious URL in the 3.

phishing PDFs

I did a check about this URL in VirusTotal and it had a malicious reputation.

phishing PDFs

When I opened the file in the Kali, we could see it had an original logo of the bank and a button to click that will direct me to an URL.

phishing PDFs

When I clicked in this button the URL hxxp://cefonlineencaminha[.]z13[.[]web[.]core[.]windows[.]net redirect to another URL ms[.]meuappavisos[.]com

phishing PDFs

I checked the URL reputation, and it has a lot of mentions about it.

phishing PDFs

In conclusion, it’s essential to take care and attention to each detail when you open this kind of email because you can put your machine in a dangerous situation, have your data exfiltrated, be hacked and etc.

Tools used during the analysis:

  • Kali Linux – https://www.kali.org/get-kali/ 
  • MX ToolBox – https://mxtoolbox.com 
  • pdf-parser – https://blog.didierstevens.com/programs/pdf-tools/ 
  • peepdf – https://github.com/jesparza/peepdf 
  • Abuse IPdb – https://www.abuseipdb.com 
  • Virus Total – https://www.virustotal.com/ 

About the author: Zoziel Pinto Freire

Cyber Security Specialist | Forensic Expert | Threat Hunting | BlueTeam | RedTeam | Pentester | Assessment

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, phishing)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Hacking hacking news IT Information Security PDF phishing Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 04, 2025
Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 04, 2025
Google fined $314M for misusing idle Android users' data
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits

    Security / July 04, 2025

    Google fined $314M for misusing idle Android users' data

    Laws and regulations / July 04, 2025

    A flaw in Catwatchful spyware exposed logins of +62,000 users

    Malware / July 04, 2025

    China-linked group Houken hit French organizations using zero-days

    APT / July 03, 2025

    Cybercriminals Target Brazil: 248,725 Exposed in CIEE One Data Breach

    Data Breach / July 03, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT