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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a96a3903acdb6746…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

658.0 KB
MD5: ec436ca697cd22ff6ecdbf9925689958 SHA-1: b954dfb732171044ebd0ab00ecec45e487292ecd SHA-256: a96a3903acdb6746cb07466ceb3224cd40c9b1e367cf59345dc712cf4b108b42
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1566 Phishing T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The sample is an encrypted OOXML file that contains an embedded Equation Editor OLE object. This object exhibits anomalies consistent with exploit delivery, specifically related to CVE-2018-0798. The high entropy and anomalous stream sizes within the Equation Editor object suggest it is designed to deliver a malicious payload. No document body text was extractable due to encryption.

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.
  • 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 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.

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