Analyzing Malicious PDF With Peepdf

Analyzing Malicious Pdf With Peepdf

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for analyzing malicious pdf with peepdf. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "analyzing malicious pdf with peepdf"

• "Perform static analysis of malicious PDF documents using peepdf, pdfid, and pdf-"

• When triaging suspicious PDF attachments from phishing emails

• During malware analysis of PDF-based exploit documents

• When extracting embedded JavaScript, shellcode, or executables from PDFs

• For forensic examination of weaponized document artifacts

• When building detection signatures for PDF-based threats

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+ with peepdf-3 installed (pip install peepdf-3)
• pdfid.py and pdf-parser.py from Didier Stevens suite
• Isolated analysis environment (VM or sandbox)
• Optional: PyV8 for JavaScript emulation within peepdf
• Optional: Pylibemu for shellcode analysis

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs(text: str) -> dict:
    return {k: re.findall(v, text) for k, v in IOC_PATTERNS.items()}

1. Scope the Analysis — Define what malicious pdf artifacts or data sources to examine and the investigation timeline.
2. Preserve Evidence — Create forensic copies of relevant data. Maintain chain of custody documentation.
3. Extract Key Indicators — Use peepdf to parse and extract relevant malicious pdf data points from collected artifacts.
4. Correlate Findings — Cross-reference extracted data with other sources (threat intel, logs, timelines).
5. Build Timeline — Construct a chronological sequence of events related to malicious pdf.
6. Document Analysis — Write findings report with evidence, conclusions, and recommendations.

Tools

• peepdf — Primary tool for this skill
• Forensic Toolkit — Evidence collection and analysis
• Timeline Tools — Chronological event reconstruction
• Log Analysis Platform — Centralized log parsing and search

Process

1. Scope — Define research questions, identify data sources, set time boundaries
2. Gather — Collect data from primary sources, APIs, and public records
3. Synthesize — Analyze findings, identify patterns, produce actionable report

Verification

• All malicious pdf procedures executed completely and documented
• Findings validated against multiple data sources
• False positives identified and filtered
• Results documented with evidence and timestamps
• Recommendations provided with risk-based prioritization

Anti-Rationalization Table