PDF Obfuscation - A Primer

Obfuscation is widely used to attempt to hide malicious intent. There are a veriety of automatic tools available to both obfuscate and deobfuscate code. What happens when automatic methods fail? What if you wish to create a malicious PDF for targeted use to subvert antivirus at a hardened client? Understanding obfuscation fundamentals will help you to both customize attack auto-generated PDFs as well as write custom PDFs as needed. What follows is an introduction to a variety of obfuscation techniques used by attackers to hide malicious intent and penetrate corporate networks.