Malicious RTF / .DOC — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 dcbe2676ad1655f2…

MALICIOUS

RTF / .DOC

2.46 MB First seen: 2022-08-01
MD5: 18187ae0d2ed8e8d1b426e1c6846ab0d SHA-1: 63e7d30c9a10728c145c17ffc912ccd27cc23589 SHA-256: dcbe2676ad1655f2a011af49aaba8c0f35ec3fdc67b1d5b6df8bca5bfac8e077
402 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File T1559.001 Component Object Model Hijacking T1059.003 Windows Command Shell

The RTF document contains embedded OLE objects and exploits the Equation Editor vulnerability (CVE-2017-11882) to activate and execute a payload. ClamAV detections indicate the embedded artifact is a trojan, likely AsyncRAT, suggesting the RTF acts as a dropper for a remote access tool. The large amount of hex-encoded data further supports the presence of a hidden payload.

Heuristics 10

  • 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.
  • 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 ~1842KB 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_off0000126a.bin
643c918166563c7cbe9262ea1bfc3d56f56d939be27bcb2f0a82bcb81a242ecf
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x126A 927045 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Win.Trojan.AsyncRAT-9914220-0
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.89, consistent with packed or encrypted content.
objdata_01_off001cbe3e.bin
e4325f0b75b454ccfb493d6255ccd046928a3bef6811edf39a31e79146bf33a5
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x1CBE3E 141152 bytes