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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 78c31b513dc32fcf…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

1.18 MB
MD5: fe9ca8be4c1c0cfe34e1a9923c17383d SHA-1: 4dafd72181346675d45d8d5b875950e2312d873b SHA-256: 78c31b513dc32fcf41f7fe43177dc2483a49ffa594b4af78baf9604744649275
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The file is a password-encrypted Office document containing an embedded Equation Editor OLE object. This object exhibits an anomaly, carrying a payload-like Ole10Native stream, which strongly suggests exploitation of a known vulnerability in Equation Editor for client execution. The encrypted nature and embedded exploit carrier point towards a spearphishing attachment delivery method.

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.
  • 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 document is password-encrypted medium OFFICE_ENCRYPTED_PACKAGE
    OLE container holds MS-OFFCRYPTO encrypted package (Standard Encryption (Office 2007+, AES-128)).
  • 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.