Malicious RTF / .DOC — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 3b7b585212471be1…

MALICIOUS

RTF / .DOC

2.35 MB First seen: 2022-08-01
MD5: 4b10f17ac7bb50f3d54a469411734d17 SHA-1: 4ac153b0e81f4f46cee0b9a7c379a25410f53d5e SHA-256: 3b7b585212471be11d882afa89b6caee3a79524c05ef6e3a7d515210ab645c43
442 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File Execution: Malicious File T1559.001 Component Object Model Hijacking

The RTF document contains embedded OLE objects and exploits the Equation Editor vulnerability (CVE-2017-11882) to execute arbitrary code. ClamAV detections indicate the embedded payload is likely AsyncRAT, a remote access trojan. The large amount of hex-encoded data within the OLE object suggests it is used to hide the malicious payload.

Heuristics 11

  • Equation Editor activation — CVE-2017-11882 related high CVE related CVE_2017_11882_ACTIVATION_RELATED
    RTF decodes to an Equation.3 ProgID and requests OLE activation with \objemb plus \objupdate. This reaches the legacy Equation Editor attack surface used by CVE-2017-11882/CVE-2018-0802 documents, but the malformed MTEF/native payload needed for stronger attribution was not recovered.
  • Composite Moniker in RTF OLE object high CVE related RTF_COMPOSITE_MONIKER_RELATED
    RTF contains Composite Moniker CLSID in OLE object context, but no nearby scriptlet/SCT payload was confirmed. Treat as related moniker attack-surface evidence rather than proof of CVE-2017-8570 exploitation.
  • Split hex Equation Editor ProgID + OLE object critical RTF_EQUATION_EDITOR
    RTF embeds the Equation.3 ProgID as hex bytes near OLE object activation and splits the byte stream with whitespace or an ignorable RTF group. This is an Equation Editor OLE activation surface commonly used by CVE-2017-11882 / CVE-2018-0802 exploit documents.
  • PE header (with DOS stub) in hex data critical RTF_MZ_HEX
    Hex-encoded PE (MZ + DOS stub) found inside RTF — likely an embedded executable payload
  • ClamAV: Rtf.Dropper.Agent-9965975-1 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Rtf.Dropper.Agent-9965975-1
  • ClamAV detection on extracted artifact critical EXTRACTED_FILE_CLAMAV
    ClamAV flagged at least one file extracted from inside this sample. Even when the wrapping document carries no AV detection of its own, a hit on the carved artifact is a strong indicator the sample is a delivery vehicle.
  • \objupdate forces OLE activation high RTF_OBJUPDATE
    RTF contains \objupdate — forces automatic OLE object instantiation when the document is opened, bypassing user interaction. Almost exclusively seen in Equation Editor exploit documents.
  • Large hex data blocks in OLE object high RTF_EXCESSIVE_HEX
    RTF contains ~1734KB of hex-encoded data inside \objdata sections — may hide a payload
  • OLE object data medium RTF_OBJDATA
    RTF contains 2 \objdata section(s) — embedded OLE objects
  • Embedded OLE object medium RTF_OBJEMB
    RTF contains \objemb — embedded OLE object
  • Suspicious extracted artifact info EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE
    One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
objdata_00_off0000129e.bin
f91fe85de188a7b900cd75b74a9cb2db45d8d3b66c6c9f9f49ee84244ae3dbdd
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x129E 873285 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Win.Trojan.AsyncRAT-9914220-0
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.84, consistent with packed or encrypted content.
objdata_01_off001b1aa6.bin
e4325f0b75b454ccfb493d6255ccd046928a3bef6811edf39a31e79146bf33a5
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x1B1AA6 141152 bytes