How to scan PDF for virus/malware?
Can someone suggest an automated tool to scan PDF for viruses or malware? Or, alternatively, assign a risk level to the PDF?
I would prefer a tool that’s free of cost. It must be suitable for programmatic use, e.g., from the Unix command line so that it is possible to scan PDFs automatically and take action based upon that. A web-based solution might also be good if it is scriptable.
Just came by this very recent blog post by Lenny Zeltser which is pretty much right on the money 6 Free Tools for analyzing Malicious PDF Files http://blog.zeltser.com/post/5360563894/tools-for-malicious-pdf-analysis The tools he mentions are:
- PDF Tools suite by Didier Stevens
- PDF Stream Dumper
- Jsunpack-n
- MalObjClass
- Origami
- Peepdf
How to scan PDF for viruses? If you ever receive any PDF from any untrusted sources, it is recommended to scan the file before opening it. Email providers like Gmail have an inbuilt malware scanner for file attachments. They implement the technology of VirusTotal so you can be assured. You can even scan the file before even downloading using online virus scanners. There is an online tool called PDF Examiner which can analyze PDF files for Javascript obfuscation and other known exploits. It even works for encrypted files. Lastly, once you have the file downloaded on the computer, make sure you have real-time anti-malware protection. It will be your second layer of defense to detect unknown malware and protect if something still goes wrong.