Threat Modelling Adobe PDF

Abstract

PDF documents are increasingly being used as an attack vector to compromise and execute malicious code on victim machines. Such attacks threaten the assets of any organisation which they can exploit. PDF documents appeal to attackers due to their wide spread use and because users consider them to be safe. In this paper we analyse the threats posed by PDF documents. We outline current exploits, security defences employed by the Acrobat PDF reader; obfuscation techniques used by attackers to avoid detection; and threats to Adobe Acrobat. We also describe a tool we developed to assist in the identification of potentially malicious code in PDF documents.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA583327

Entities

People

  • Luke Steller
  • Ronald Brandis

Organizations

  • Defence Science and Technology Group

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • C Programming Language
  • Coding
  • Computer Program Documentation
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Decoding
  • Detection
  • Electronic Mail
  • Graphical User Interface
  • Internet
  • Language
  • Operating Systems
  • Programming Languages
  • Web Browsers
  • Web Service

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Statistical inference.