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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 54ae07129d97818d…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

2.21 MB
MD5: 33583ac25e1563c74041d3a0db344f7a SHA-1: f448b7401803fb5d92f8418859f471f4780f4c2d SHA-256: 54ae07129d97818d4e604f7b0e422e0e0f9723aebd8a7d16b4bfea1dd674b245
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1204.002 Malicious File

The file is an encrypted Excel spreadsheet that utilizes an embedded Equation Editor OLE object. This object exhibits anomalies consistent with exploit delivery, specifically related to CVE-2018-0798. The presence of an embedded OLE object within an encrypted OOXML document strongly suggests it's designed to deliver a malicious payload upon opening, likely exploiting vulnerabilities in the Equation Editor component.

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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