File format-based exploitation
We will be covering various attacks on the victim using malicious files in this section. Whenever these malicious files run, Meterpreter or shell access is provided to the target system. In the next section, we will cover exploitation using malicious documents and PDF files.
PDF-based exploits
PDF file format-based exploits are those that trigger vulnerabilities in various PDF readers and parsers, which are made to execute the payload carrying PDF files, presenting the attacker with complete access to the target system in the form of a Meterpreter shell or a command shell. However, before getting into the technique, let's find out which vulnerability we are targeting and what the environment details are:
To exploit the vulnerability, we will create a PDF file and send it to the victim. When the victim tries to open our malicious PDF file, we will be able to get the Meterpreter shell or the command shell based on the...