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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 0a346e061cc42bfe…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

101.0 KB First seen: 2022-08-25
MD5: b8db932db647b08d61c708f0f86e9a08 SHA-1: 8ae90da4e9a1c4341a2b2f244341d9b27e810d12 SHA-256: 0a346e061cc42bfe5a70912a3f06db96f56a192e45afe02cbb6a29cb25575733
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1566 Phishing T1204.002 Malicious File

The file is an encrypted Office document, identified as an exploit carrier for CVE-2018-0798. The exploit targets an Equation Editor OLE object, indicating a likely attempt to execute arbitrary code upon opening. The encryption and exploit vector suggest a downloader or initial access stage for a more complex attack.

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-128)).
  • 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.