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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2d28f3138de8f2e4…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

1.69 MB
MD5: efef1570d00393b80fc8f1649a74c513 SHA-1: c1be36e5f3d3ea568124f68dd8c962dee92f0110 SHA-256: 2d28f3138de8f2e41a074161220a854341586eee0872a3bffd0be175d04ac62c
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1566 Phishing

The file is an encrypted Excel spreadsheet containing an embedded Equation Editor OLE object. Heuristics indicate this object is anomalous and likely carries a payload, specifically targeting CVE-2018-0798. The encryption and the use of the Equation Editor suggest a delivery mechanism for a second-stage exploit or malware. No specific family could be identified due to the lack of script content and the focus on an OLE object exploit.

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.
  • 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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