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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 551da43eec2156e0…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

367.0 KB
MD5: 2b1b39276d0f7dff4324fb91f10a559e SHA-1: a9521f859d6aa73161f222cb5f3aa73569d85935 SHA-256: 551da43eec2156e0439c49d95550d3e1aee42c8caea637b657c456fc63c4cb84
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The sample is an encrypted OOXML file that contains an Equation Editor OLE object. Heuristics indicate this object is anomalous and exploits CVE-2018-0798. This suggests the file is designed to exploit a vulnerability in Equation Editor for initial execution, likely delivered as a malicious attachment.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • 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.