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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9bacc7bf50ddc65f…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

511.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2023-07-19
MD5: 7012ae2aca575c5ea84c0059d99213e5 SHA-1: 11f78269d13938c00efc8c8b4980ec7700d11ef7 SHA-256: 9bacc7bf50ddc65f4d50691d4d51e796218d0ed131d032cd348121484bb51a55
134 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution T1059.005 PowerShell T1071.001 Web Protocols

The sample is an Excel file that exploits CVE-2017-0199 via a URL moniker to download a remote payload. The embedded URL points to a suspicious DOC file, indicating a likely downloader or initial access vector. The presence of multiple embedded PDF objects with suspicious static findings further suggests a complex, multi-stage attack.

Heuristics 6

  • OLE2Link / URL Moniker → remote loader — CVE-2017-0199 critical CVE likely CVE_2017_0199
    Document contains an embedded OLE link object whose URL Moniker points to a remote URL. When the host file is opened, Office follows the link, downloads the URL, and processes the response based on its Content-Type (HTA -> mshta.exe, RTF → Word, etc.) — the documented CVE-2017-0199 primitive. The URL extension is not a reliable filter; servers can return different payloads to Office's user agent.
  • Secondary embedded PDF body has suspicious static findings critical POLYGLOT_CHILD_PDF_STATIC_TRIAGE
    A valid PDF body was found at a nonzero offset inside another container and its carved contents matched PDF exploit or lure heuristics. This catches polyglots where the top-level magic routes to ZIP/OLE while a PDF reader or downstream parser opens the hidden PDF payload.
  • VBA project contains no executable statements low OLE_VBA_MACROS
    Document contains a VBA project, but extracted modules only contain attributes/options/comments and no executable statements.
  • Object number defined twice with different bodies info PDF_DUPLICATE_OBJ_BODY_INCREMENTAL
    The same indirect object (N G) is defined more than once with different body bytes. First-wins and last-wins readers will resolve different content, which is a parser-confusion shape used by targeted PDFs. Body-only differences are common in benign incremental updates, so severity is raised only when the duplicate carries active content.
  • PDF paints image(s) but contains no text operators info PDF_IMAGE_ONLY_LURE
    PDF has 1 image XObject(s) and the content stream contains no text-emitting operators (BT/ET, Tj, TJ, ', ") in either raw bytes or decompressed streams — this is the screenshot-as-PDF pattern used to bypass text-based scanners and to deliver instructions purely through rendered pixels. It is informational unless paired with invisible links or risky URI context.
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://192.3.243.146/232/idbkiidbkidibkidibkidbkidibki%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23idbkiidbkibdki.DOC

Extracted artifacts 6

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas
7f506327609c082af1cd37dde23bc2c71a000f7d1ef530b6abb66775040a7673		 vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source) 1206 bytes
stream_003_off00005f60.bin
2998a126f4fa11ceb265371a5f7968ec18bc4692a32631a544232dc74040021f		 decompressed-pdf-stream PDF FlateDecoded stream at offset 0x5F60 252488 bytes
polyglot_child_pdf_off00000e00.pdf
a31c76bc00ab007d14fb10238ed680f23f0b6ad0232c04e89431a2f094a92a4c		 polyglot-child-pdf Secondary PDF body inside ole container at offset 0xE00 520192 bytes
polyglot_child_pdf_off00006400.pdf
03e6c113902c8755170865ea9db875b65ad90c745c2739e75d2d7cbe3fc5b5b4		 polyglot-child-pdf Secondary PDF body inside ole container at offset 0x6400 498176 bytes
polyglot_child_pdf_off00029400.pdf
4ce8d05cd88c5e516fb5df7d32ea1ac85a7adfe05ea718f343885ba60f533233		 polyglot-child-pdf Secondary PDF body inside ole container at offset 0x29400 354816 bytes
polyglot_child_pdf_off0004bc00.pdf
2bf71f3ce0913fd8a6406653c1e43ee669bffc1928e0551ca0732a24e662b84c		 polyglot-child-pdf Secondary PDF body inside ole container at offset 0x4BC00 213504 bytes

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