Formbook — Office (OOXML) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 7689fde52d772a68…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

2.47 MB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 12.0000
MD5: dc677a3b50b7659c944615f6e04ea29d SHA-1: 36a7e78bd13be55a1c62b73203e80c6f61c45eab SHA-256: 7689fde52d772a6810cccf89d32a6bb8e944a9ce435a44dc52032feeee61d6eb
250 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Formbook · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious File Execution T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter

The sample is an Excel file containing an embedded OLE object, specifically an Equation Editor object. Heuristics indicate this object exploits CVE-2018-0798, a vulnerability in Equation Editor, and carries a payload within its native stream. ClamAV detection confirms this as a Formbook downloader, which is known to exploit such vulnerabilities to fetch and execute further malicious content.

Heuristics 8

  • Equation Editor OLE object high CVE related OLE_EQUATION_EDITOR
    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
    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.
  • ClamAV: Doc.Downloader.Formbook-bc97c1e0c33c3c93-9951465-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.Formbook-bc97c1e0c33c3c93-9951465-0
  • x86 GetPC stub (CALL $+5; POP ESI) high SC_GETPC_CALL
    x86 GetPC stub (CALL $+5; POP ESI)
  • 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
  • Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET
    Excel workbook contains 1 hidden sheet(s) — hidden sheets are commonly used to conceal macro code, staging data, or intermediate payload construction
  • 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 3

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
ooxml_oleobject_00.bin
a958431bab50b4729ba6cb885b23ef03b17be1ba3305e88b136977ef9b77401b
ooxml-ole-object OOXML embedded OLE part: xl/embeddings/oleObject1.bin 2411008 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.97, consistent with packed or encrypted content.
ooxml_oleobject_00_ole10native_00.bin
18eae7e21512bfd83a7d460891413342586aa5c0180930761d1c2c3a338675e3
ole-package OOXML xl/embeddings/oleObject1.bin Ole10Native stream: OLE10NATiVe 2390000 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.99, consistent with packed or encrypted content.
emf_00.emf
3ec09f9d4895d47bbb941d14ee4b9bde7530b4aa97ae5c1eb5398e9bf7e4cd51
ooxml-emf OOXML EMF part: xl/media/image2.emf 1099960 bytes