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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a2577fc056cfff40…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

511.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2023-07-18
MD5: 4c67ee1f39fbbdc5fa1ecaba1792b0e8 SHA-1: 3f189e1c935ea707976626bb907485e90eeb6811 SHA-256: a2577fc056cfff4025b8cd15f49b2d2cb150c3f7f3fb0c1ee8067afc9f5c807d
134 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an OLE file that exploits CVE-2017-0199 via a URL moniker to download a remote DOC file. The embedded URL http://43.230.202.82/iso/isoiosioiosiosioosiosios%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23isoisoosiioosioosio.DOC is indicative of a downloader. The presence of multiple embedded PDFs and a VBA macro, though empty of executable statements, suggests a multi-stage attack. The primary finding is the exploitation of CVE-2017-0199 for remote code execution.

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://43.230.202.82/iso/isoiosioiosiosioosiosios%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23%23isoisoosiioosioosio.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
a5e18d28c325c7dc1d3427c79aec56714a88123deef5c58bb4f4b8ea2d5b21b6		 polyglot-child-pdf Secondary PDF body inside ole container at offset 0xE00 520192 bytes
polyglot_child_pdf_off00006400.pdf
0aeca1561216497c589da42fc7bc380956486419c5a040fd4eddacdb6b90a4c3		 polyglot-child-pdf Secondary PDF body inside ole container at offset 0x6400 498176 bytes
polyglot_child_pdf_off00029400.pdf
d3a662b1cba39701a50ed8f939405f9ea3abdff969eacb95c8d5789b6fad42f5		 polyglot-child-pdf Secondary PDF body inside ole container at offset 0x29400 354816 bytes
polyglot_child_pdf_off0004bc00.pdf
db73222decfdaa694c6f577cf0cd0231ca794ef1433486f38c76f1a7ac56085f		 polyglot-child-pdf Secondary PDF body inside ole container at offset 0x4BC00 213504 bytes

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