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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 284c0a8ab7571236…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

756.9 KB Created: 2023-01-19 05:24:18 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2023-05-16
MD5: 13111fe1d66ed7a2ec173b4f225d6b5f SHA-1: c4748440b2436f33484f98633b6358c8f86ed690 SHA-256: 284c0a8ab75712361b38eed70255fd82f615550058f8e61d5ffb909cefccfdad
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1204.001 Malicious Link: Malicious Link T1559 Component Object Model Hijacking T1559.001 Component Object Model Hijacking: Component Object Model Hijacking

The file contains an embedded OLE object, specifically identified as a Microsoft Equation Editor object. High-severity heuristics indicate that this object is anomalous and carries a payload, strongly suggesting exploitation of CVE-2018-0798. The embedded object's stream name 'OLE10nATIVe' and its anomalous header further confirm its malicious nature. The primary attack vector is the exploitation of the Equation Editor vulnerability to execute a secondary payload.

Heuristics 4

  • Equation Editor OLE object high CVE related OLE_EQUATION_EDITOR
    Embedded OLE object xl/embeddings/hiNUI7q.vzG 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
    Embedded Equation Editor OLE data contains anomalous native stream bytes consistent with a CVE-2018-0798-style Equation Editor exploit. This is treated as likely CVE evidence because the Equation object is malformed and payload-like, but it does not match the exact public matrix-overflow byte signature.
  • Equation Editor object carries payload-like Ole10Native stream high OLE_EQUATION_OLE10NATIVE_PAYLOAD_ANOMALY
    Embedded OLE object declares the Equation Editor CLSID but stores a large high-entropy Ole10Native stream with malformed package sizing. This is an exploit-shaped Equation/OLE payload container seen in malicious OOXML samples. It is not assigned to a specific CVE unless the MTEF/Equation Native primitive also matches.
  • Embedded OLE object medium OOXML_OLE_OBJECT
    Document contains an embedded OLE object

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
ooxml_oleobject_00.bin
69ae5ba2614628e296e72a79ce3f664ff76cf868f5c72249d90e9c859d062b49		 ooxml-ole-object OOXML embedded OLE part: xl/embeddings/hiNUI7q.vzG 1077760 bytes
ooxml_oleobject_00_ole10native_00.bin
f7ee0653ba70ba1c536239e18c75e3db68f5ef1e6b6a096be271a6cd645fd308		 ole-package OOXML xl/embeddings/hiNUI7q.vzG Ole10Native stream: OLE10nATIVe 1066987 bytes

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