Malicious RTF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e9f63db803ec395b…

MALICIOUS

RTF

3.86 MB First seen: 2022-06-16
MD5: f8e9710bf07673c791970a83f22b798c SHA-1: 8ae7b35166f8766f091aa73a71f927ec82ad374f SHA-256: e9f63db803ec395b2efd35950abd4e0fad7f172d1c7fec7912d53b11a5656312
382 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1204.002 Malicious File T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information

The RTF document contains multiple indicators of exploitation, specifically related to CVE-2017-11882 through the Equation Editor object. The presence of large hex-encoded data blocks and a PE header within the OLE object strongly suggests that the file is a dropper. ClamAV detection as 'Rtf.Dropper.Agent-9965975-1' further supports this assessment. The embedded OLE object likely contains and executes a secondary 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.
  • Composite Moniker in RTF OLE object high CVE related RTF_COMPOSITE_MONIKER_RELATED
    RTF contains Composite Moniker CLSID in OLE object context, but no nearby scriptlet/SCT payload was confirmed. Treat as related moniker attack-surface evidence rather than proof of CVE-2017-8570 exploitation.
  • 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
  • \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 ~2010KB 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_off00001291.bin
7f27e7b4c59d28c48ddce9621fbd9a62cdc65b6b1936d0534de7ddaf142ac172
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x1291 1022763 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.88, consistent with packed or encrypted content.
objdata_01_off0020023c.bin
a13335cde7397140c2d0911d9381238c9caf13f5f7932e575fd1b5d0cf687773
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x20023C 463856 bytes