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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4f479bbdfc1e6f0a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

1.30 MB Created: 2021-09-22 12:07:42 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 12.0000
MD5: 05b4d49435bebba45b3f5632f4168f21 SHA-1: e72277bd6ca4054927a2270d29ead6a9e2354f90 SHA-256: 4f479bbdfc1e6f0ae1db03c1e09cda6d3aaa089523a4dfbd8d76ae26ec635e79
142 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an Office Open XML (OOXML) XLSX file containing an embedded OLE object, specifically identified as a Microsoft Equation Editor object. High-severity heuristics indicate that this Equation Editor object is anomalous and carries a payload-like stream, strongly suggesting exploitation of CVE-2018-0798. The embedded OLE object and its anomalous native stream are the primary indicators of malicious activity, likely leading to the execution of a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 5

  • Equation Editor OLE object high CVE related OLE_EQUATION_EDITOR
    Embedded OLE object xl/embeddings/dP2zV.KK3p84 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
  • 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
ooxml_oleobject_00.bin
0b1b72f7d0d8692b2b1862152eab0494edc9c0625b4a05465cc8854ced718400
ooxml-ole-object OOXML embedded OLE part: xl/embeddings/dP2zV.KK3p84 1632256 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.99, consistent with packed or encrypted content.
ooxml_oleobject_00_ole10native_00.bin
c71fd1ba61b4e91005273e6554378b365764af6d775478dbe5f4a3310222d9e4
ole-package OOXML xl/embeddings/dP2zV.KK3p84 Ole10Native stream: Ole10nAtIVe 1617344 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.99, consistent with packed or encrypted content.