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Malware through PDF Attachments..?





A recent malicious campaign discovers the delivery of PDF documents to the users as an attachment through phishing messages in order for them to download a malicious Android executable file.

The PDFs utilize various ways such as “To open this document, update the adobe reader” or “To unlock this document press below button" to grab the user's attention. At the point when the user finally perform the requested click activity on that document, a malevolent APK (Android executable) file is downloaded from a link that was present in that PDF, which further downloads original Adobe Reader.


This malware additionally has the ability to peruse contacts, read, the browser bookmarks, and key-logging and to inhibit the background processes.

It distinguishes whether the phone is rooted or non-rooted and proceeds accordingly at the same time gathering information on the longitude and latitude  data while tracking SMS notifications and call status'  and then sending the information to the servers controlled by the attackers.


It is therefore recommended for the users to abstain from downloading applications from the third-party application stores or links and other connections given in SMSs or emails. Also to avoid opening mails and attachments from obscure sources and to dependably keep 'Unknown Sources' disabled as enabling this option permits the installation certain applications from obscure sources.

But more importantly, to keep the device OS and mobile security application always updated in order to protect their privacy.