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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 22c301bc342e0044…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

2.25 MB
MD5: f47f4a792bfcd79bbe6410f673fcd2d3 SHA-1: 76cf1df987c8624085c69fb1cd8adcd4c2fdd76f SHA-256: 22c301bc342e004460c44dab8f3df2870a8a26661530d100184c05a01cebb3a4
220 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1204.002 Malicious File T1566 Phishing T1566.002 Spearphishing Attachment T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter

The file is an Office document that leverages an embedded Equation Editor OLE object. Heuristics indicate exploitation of CVE-2018-0798, a vulnerability associated with the Equation Editor. This suggests the document is designed to execute arbitrary code upon opening, likely as a delivery mechanism for a secondary payload. No document body was extractable due to encryption, but the presence of the exploit carrier and anomalous Equation Editor stream strongly points to a malicious intent.

Heuristics 6

  • 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.
  • PEB access via FS segment (x86) high SC_PEB_ACCESS
    PEB access via FS segment (x86)
  • 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.
  • Equation Editor object carries payload-like Ole10Native stream high OLE_EQUATION_OLE10NATIVE_PAYLOAD_ANOMALY
    Default-encrypted OOXML embedded OLE object declares the Equation Editor CLSID but stores a large high-entropy Ole10Native stream with malformed package sizing. This is exploit-shaped Equation/OLE payload evidence.
  • 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.

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