VBA email-worm self-replication (Outlook mass-mailer)

OLE_VBA_EMAIL_WORM_SELF_REPLICATION

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critical OLE_VBA_EMAIL_WORM_SELF_REPLICATION

What it means

VBA macro drives Outlook to mass-mail itself — creates mail items, harvests recipients, and auto-attaches the carrier.

Why it fires

The macro automates Outlook.Application and programmatically creates mail items, then spreads by at least two independent worm behaviors: harvesting recipient addresses from the MAPI address book / inbox (GAL enumeration, default-folder walk, or scraping message bodies), auto-attaching a file (the carrier) to outgoing messages, and sending them programmatically. A benign “email this report” macro mails a single fixed recipient and never enumerates the address book, so the conjunction is the defining behavior of the Melissa / LoveLetter / W97M mass-mailer worm lineage, detected independently of any AV signature.

Other Office heuristics

OLE_VBA_AFFINE_MSI_DOWNLOADER OLE_VBA_AUTOEXEC_FRAGMENTED_SHELL OLE_VBA_DESTRUCTIVE_WORKBOOK_SHUTDOWN OLE_VBA_BIDIRECTIONAL_MACROCOPY_REPLICATION OOXML_BRAND_LINK_MISMATCH_LURE CVE_2016_7262 POLYGLOT_OOXML_REL_COMMAND OLE_RAW_PCODE_CROSS_DOCUMENT_REPLICATION OLE_VBA_CROSS_WORKBOOK_REPLICATION OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN OFFICE_DEFAULT_PASSWORD_VBA_DROP_EXEC OFFICE_EMBEDDED_SWF EMBEDDED_OFFICE_CHILD_STATIC_TRIAGE OFFICE_EMBEDDED_MACRO_OBJECT OLE_EMBEDDED_EXE OLE_VBA_EMBEDDED_PE_DROPPER OLE_ENCRYPTED_AND_MALFORMED CVE_2017_11882_EQUATION_NATIVE_CMD_RELATED CVE_2017_11882 OLE_EQUATION_OLE10NATIVE_DOWNLOADER OLE_MTEF_NATIVE_CODE_STUB OLE_EQUATION_OLE10NATIVE_SHELLCODE OOXML_XLM_MACRO_IN_WORKSHEET OLE_XLS5_LAROUX_MACRO_VIRUS