VBA macro writes hosts-file redirect entries

OLE_VBA_HOSTS_FILE_HIJACK

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high OLE_VBA_HOSTS_FILE_HIJACK

What it means

VBA macro opens the Windows hosts file for writing and appends 'address hostname' redirect entries.

Why it fires

The macro opens %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts for output or append and writes entries mapping a hostname to an address. The redirect is system-wide and survives reboot. Pointed at an attacker-controlled address it silently substitutes a site the user keeps visiting — the Xanpei/Sibhost family did this to Chinese e-commerce domains for affiliate fraud; pointed at 127.0.0.1 it blackholes antivirus and update domains so the infection cannot be cleaned. A document has no legitimate reason to edit the hosts file. Merely naming the path does not fire this rule: a write primitive and a parsed address/hostname entry are both required.

Other Office Macros heuristics

OLE_VBA_XOR_DECODED_SHELL OLE_VBA_DOCUMENT_BODY_DROP_EXEC OLE_VBA_SPLIT_KEYWORD_OBFUSCATION OLE_VBA_AUTOEXEC_NORMAL_TEMPLATE_VIRUS OLE_VBA_OBFUSCATED_AUTOEXEC_LOADER OLE_RAW_MACRO_NATIVE_MEMORY_CALLBACK_LOADER OOXML_VBA_CELL_URL_DROPPER OLE_VBA_REACHABLE_HTTP_DROP_EXEC OLE_VBA_HTTP_DROP_EXEC OLE_VBA_HTTP_RESPONSE_COMMAND_EXEC OLE_VBA_CELL_GETOBJECT_EXEC OLE_VBA_XLM_CALL_INJECTION OLE_VBA_NATIVE_MEMORY_CALLBACK_LOADER OLE_VBA_BITSTRANSFER_DROPPER OLE_VBA_USERFORM_CMD_DROPPER OOXML_VBA_DEFINED_NAME_NETWORK_CONSUMED OOXML_VBA_DYNAMIC_CELL_URL_SOURCE OLE_VBA_KEYLOGGER_SPYWARE OOXML_VBA_CELL_IMAGE_SOURCE OLE_VBA_BARE_IPV4_LITERAL