Malicious RTF / .DOC — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 d2b5c5eb49d65e0f…

MALICIOUS

RTF / .DOC

28.5 KB First seen: 2022-12-07
MD5: 2446e6ac902fa0f79eeb150ac096617e SHA-1: 297c644ee92abcd36a02a03fd77b68adcf569c74 SHA-256: d2b5c5eb49d65e0f5f37bf16bebe9d6062c1cc2de5ff972812a22b5b4b59f213
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an RTF document that contains OLE object data and an embedded Equation Editor object, triggering critical heuristics for RTF_EQUATION_EDITOR and RTF_OBJUPDATE. The SE_ENABLE_LURE heuristic indicates the document likely contains a prompt to enable content, a common tactic for macro-based malware. The presence of these indicators strongly suggests an exploit targeting the Equation Editor vulnerability to achieve code execution and likely download a secondary payload.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • \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.
  • OLE object data medium RTF_OBJDATA
    RTF contains 1 \objdata section(s) — embedded OLE objects
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
objdata_00_off000048bb.bin
23a4c43b0a1ad9e6003d75cc7d29024ce978ecd4bfe36ef2623fcf1d5cd39ab9
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x48BB 1764 bytes