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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 c33a65ad800583e2…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

344.0 KB First seen: 2022-04-12
MD5: 9f47ed2df51c03e66997ac955a2da394 SHA-1: 811e7f553ebf7a223a3364a37e6bc357eb61d4d9 SHA-256: c33a65ad800583e276f909c5daac76f07b456ce5e2f6a08cd57ab6b96baa9c36
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1204.001 Malicious Link: Malicious File T1559 Component Object Model Hijacking T1559.001 Component Object Model Hijacking: Component Object Model Hijacking

The file is a password-encrypted XLSX document that contains an Equation Editor OLE object. Heuristics indicate this object is anomalous and specifically flags CVE-2018-0798, suggesting it's designed to exploit this vulnerability. The presence of OLE objects within the OOXML structure points to the file acting as a carrier for an exploit, likely leading to the execution of a secondary 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)).
  • 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.