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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e2a7d46ac0be5978…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

63.1 KB Created: 1996-12-17 01:32:42 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: aa73897c9419b774c5b79bd981ff4706 SHA-1: 7b0e0e3f591f2ee242497fa42e85fe770403e318 SHA-256: e2a7d46ac0be597859be165dc8f496672c1b35b488c150de7f56b761ff2a43f0
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1204.002 Malicious Link: Malicious File T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter T1059.003 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell

The sample is an Excel file that triggers a critical vulnerability, CVE-2009-3129, which allows for arbitrary code execution. This is further supported by suspicious cmd.exe invocation and PEB access heuristics. The embedded URLs, while mostly benign, include references to 'pdf-repair.com' which could be a lure for a fake service. The file's purpose is likely to exploit the CVE to download and execute a secondary payload.

Heuristics 5

  • CVE-2009-3129 — Excel FEATHEADER record overflow critical CVE exact CVE_2009_3129
    Workbook BIFF stream contains a FEATHEADER (Feature Header) record with anomalous size (record_size=22, isf=4, cbHdrData=4). Legitimate FEATHEADER records are tiny (<100 bytes) and carry cbHdrData values that fit in the record body; the value here is the documented CVE-2009-3129 exploit primitive — cbHdrData drives a memcpy with attacker-controlled size, leading to memory corruption and code execution in Excel 2007/2003.
  • PEB access via FS segment (x86) high SC_PEB_ACCESS
    PEB access via FS segment (x86)
  • Suspicious cmd.exe invocation with execution flag high SC_STR_CMD
    Suspicious cmd.exe invocation with execution flag
  • OLE document has large unaccounted-for region high OLE_SLACK_ANOMALY
    OLE file is 64,574 bytes but its declared streams total only 24,565 bytes — 40,009 bytes (62%) live in unallocated sector slack. This is the canonical hiding place for pre-macro-era Office exploit payloads (XOR-encoded shellcode reached via a parser pointer-corruption bug in the document structure).
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://www.pdf-repair.com
    • http://www.pdf-repair.com)/Producer(Advanced
    • http://www.pdf-repair.com)/ModDate(D:20100406171120+08
    • http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
    • http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/
    • http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/

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