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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 995aeeb43c7d5698…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

595.5 KB
MD5: db2a368f2731b8f63b61a3b6f695914c SHA-1: 7c46ea0337d737c45d3560f5b6896f6ba1e65a67 SHA-256: 995aeeb43c7d5698b83a312e1fa702ef19f44dc66bd1db291cf597eaa21727b5
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution T1559.001 Component Object Model Hijacking

The sample is a password-encrypted XLSX file identified as an exploit carrier. It contains an embedded Equation Editor OLE object (xl/embeddings/oleObject1.bin) that exhibits anomalies consistent with CVE-2018-0798. This vulnerability allows for arbitrary code execution when the object is processed. The file is likely used to deliver a second-stage payload.

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.
  • 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.