MALICIOUS
240
Risk Score
Malware Insights
MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link
T1204.002 Malicious File
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter
The sample is a password-encrypted XLSX file containing an embedded Equation Editor OLE object. Heuristics indicate this object is anomalous and exploits CVE-2018-0798, a vulnerability in Equation Editor. The file also contains a large appended payload, suggesting it's designed to drop and execute a secondary malicious component. No scripts were extracted, but the presence of the exploit carrier and appended payload strongly indicates a malicious intent to compromise the user's system.
Heuristics 7
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Equation Editor OLE object high OLE_EQUATION_EDITORDefault-encrypted OOXML embedded OLE object xl/embeddings/oleObject1.bin contains the Equation Editor CLSID, the legacy component exploited by CVE-2017-11882, CVE-2018-0802, and CVE-2018-0798.
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CVE-2018-0798 — anomalous Equation Editor native stream high CVE likely CVE_2018_0798_EQUATION_NATIVE_ANOMALYDefault-encrypted OOXML contains embedded Equation Editor data with anomalous native stream bytes consistent with a CVE-2018-0798-style exploit. This is treated as likely CVE evidence because the Equation object is malformed and payload-like.
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Default-encrypted OOXML exploit carrier layout high OOXML_ENCRYPTED_EXPLOIT_CARRIER_SHAPEDefault-password encrypted OOXML package contains embedded OLE object parts and additional activation/decoy parts. This layout is common in malicious Excel exploit delivery and requires inspecting the decrypted package.
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OLE document has large unaccounted-for region high OLE_SLACK_ANOMALYOLE file is 664,746 bytes but its declared streams total only 329,148 bytes — 335,598 bytes (50%) 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).
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OLE file has appended executable-looking payload bytes high OLE_APPENDED_PAYLOADOLE compound file contains a large high-entropy region beyond the declared major streams and that region includes shellcode, PE, or loader API markers. This is a payload-carrier signal, not a specific CVE attribution by itself.
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Office document is password-encrypted medium OFFICE_ENCRYPTED_PACKAGEOLE container holds MS-OFFCRYPTO encrypted package (Standard Encryption (Office 2007+, AES-128)).
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Office OOXML encrypted with default VelvetSweatshop password medium OFFICE_DEFAULT_PASSWORD_ENCRYPTED_OOXMLOLE EncryptedPackage decrypts with Excel's built-in VelvetSweatshop password. Office opens this transparently, and malware uses it to hide OOXML exploit parts from scanners that only inspect the outer OLE container.
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