Malicious RTF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a7d408626d3a1d2a…

MALICIOUS

RTF

2.82 MB First seen: 2022-08-08
MD5: da476c252a3f7144b98fd4150cbe57cd SHA-1: 6bbcd5ad7454e9209be77ed57a267c423cc87074 SHA-256: a7d408626d3a1d2a10b1487187083e35306e1087dd552e3f7d2fef1ee9a5bc8a
442 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1204.002 Malicious File

The RTF file contains multiple indicators of exploitation, specifically related to CVE-2017-11882 via the Equation Editor. Critical heuristics indicate the presence of an embedded OLE object containing PE header data, which is further confirmed by ClamAV detections of a dropper and a trojan (AsyncRAT). The embedded OLE object is likely responsible for downloading and executing a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 11

  • Equation Editor activation — CVE-2017-11882 related high CVE related CVE_2017_11882_ACTIVATION_RELATED
    RTF decodes to an Equation.3 ProgID and requests OLE activation with \objemb plus \objupdate. This reaches the legacy Equation Editor attack surface used by CVE-2017-11882/CVE-2018-0802 documents, but the malformed MTEF/native payload needed for stronger attribution was not recovered.
  • Composite Moniker in RTF OLE object high CVE related RTF_COMPOSITE_MONIKER_RELATED
    RTF contains Composite Moniker CLSID in OLE object context, but no nearby scriptlet/SCT payload was confirmed. Treat as related moniker attack-surface evidence rather than proof of CVE-2017-8570 exploitation.
  • Split hex Equation Editor ProgID + OLE object critical RTF_EQUATION_EDITOR
    RTF embeds the Equation.3 ProgID as hex bytes near OLE object activation and splits the byte stream with whitespace or an ignorable RTF group. This is an Equation Editor OLE activation surface commonly used by CVE-2017-11882 / CVE-2018-0802 exploit documents.
  • PE header (with DOS stub) in hex data critical RTF_MZ_HEX
    Hex-encoded PE (MZ + DOS stub) found inside RTF — likely an embedded executable payload
  • ClamAV: Rtf.Dropper.Agent-9965975-1 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Rtf.Dropper.Agent-9965975-1
  • ClamAV detection on extracted artifact critical EXTRACTED_FILE_CLAMAV
    ClamAV flagged at least one file extracted from inside this sample. Even when the wrapping document carries no AV detection of its own, a hit on the carved artifact is a strong indicator the sample is a delivery vehicle.
  • \objupdate forces OLE activation high RTF_OBJUPDATE
    RTF contains \objupdate — forces automatic OLE object instantiation when the document is opened, bypassing user interaction. Almost exclusively seen in Equation Editor exploit documents.
  • Large hex data blocks in OLE object high RTF_EXCESSIVE_HEX
    RTF contains ~1994KB of hex-encoded data inside \objdata sections — may hide a payload
  • OLE object data medium RTF_OBJDATA
    RTF contains 2 \objdata section(s) — embedded OLE objects
  • Embedded OLE object medium RTF_OBJEMB
    RTF contains \objemb — embedded OLE object
  • 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 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
objdata_00_off00001277.bin
c0cd13dcfbf8ae6ab3d4f5bcd48e61731be7d8e2d423377fb8ad070adacb5590
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x1277 1003333 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Win.Trojan.AsyncRAT-9914220-0
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.63, consistent with packed or encrypted content.
objdata_01_off001f1258.bin
ffd8c2482cc64da211bcb7ca32c7331bf3796ad5ca2159f697062f334496c915
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x1F1258 187349 bytes