Malicious Office (OLE) / .XLSX — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 02af4de1bbcfc53b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

181.0 KB First seen: 2022-06-15
MD5: 37c0bd7ad14996b40e79f313a26661b1 SHA-1: da366e77df4a095e49f65ba8700ebc9aab5588b7 SHA-256: 02af4de1bbcfc53b85cc98982128cf6a8d24678d09936583de4fcf698143ff5b
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The file is a password-encrypted Excel spreadsheet containing embedded OLE objects, specifically targeting the Equation Editor. Heuristics indicate a high likelihood of exploitation for CVE-2018-0798, which allows for arbitrary code execution via a vulnerable Equation Editor component. The presence of multiple OLE objects suggests a complex exploit carrier.

Heuristics 5

  • Equation Editor OLE object high CVE related OLE_EQUATION_EDITOR
    Default-encrypted OOXML embedded OLE object xl/embeddings/oleObject1.bin contains the Equation Editor CLSID, the legacy component exploited by CVE-2017-11882, CVE-2018-0802, and CVE-2018-0798.
  • CVE-2018-0798 — anomalous Equation Editor native stream high CVE likely CVE_2018_0798_EQUATION_NATIVE_ANOMALY
    Default-encrypted OOXML contains embedded Equation Editor data with anomalous native stream bytes consistent with a CVE-2018-0798-style exploit. This is treated as likely CVE evidence because the Equation object is malformed and payload-like.
  • Default-encrypted OOXML exploit carrier layout high OOXML_ENCRYPTED_EXPLOIT_CARRIER_SHAPE
    Default-password encrypted OOXML package contains embedded OLE object parts and additional activation/decoy parts. This layout is common in malicious Excel exploit delivery and requires inspecting the decrypted package.
  • Office document is password-encrypted medium OFFICE_ENCRYPTED_PACKAGE
    OLE container holds MS-OFFCRYPTO encrypted package (Standard Encryption (Office 2007, AES)).
  • Office OOXML encrypted with default VelvetSweatshop password medium OFFICE_DEFAULT_PASSWORD_ENCRYPTED_OOXML
    OLE EncryptedPackage decrypts with Excel's built-in VelvetSweatshop password. Office opens this transparently, and malware uses it to hide OOXML exploit parts from scanners that only inspect the outer OLE container.