Malicious RTF / .DOC — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 532fade2cba037f0…

MALICIOUS

RTF / .DOC

25.7 KB First seen: 2022-11-07
MD5: e65ebfc53195c59e55128336644a7df1 SHA-1: 08ff10ab7800b03447a6dadbbd8b89859ffafcde SHA-256: 532fade2cba037f0b13d5a9139b982fa4c1e5b1eeb1a9bb6d92bba4fd455775f
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 User Execution: Malicious Link T1059.005 PowerShell T1204.002 User Execution: Malicious File

The sample is an RTF document containing OLE object data, specifically targeting the Equation Editor vulnerability. The document body contains a lure instructing the user to 'Enable editing', which is a common technique to bypass macro security settings. The presence of RTF_OBJUPDATE further suggests that the embedded OLE object is designed to be activated automatically. This combination strongly indicates an exploit attempt, likely to download and execute a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • \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.
  • OLE object data medium RTF_OBJDATA
    RTF contains 1 \objdata section(s) — embedded OLE objects
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
objdata_00_off00004b3f.bin
540e70593a02a2c6687e719599e56a450174f5f17f1b1a3de4c6d3026008d3fd
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x4B3F 2019 bytes