Malicious RTF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 f8804b3f14902046…

MALICIOUS

RTF

2.41 MB First seen: 2022-07-28
MD5: 7636b1bf58ad69e870b546b11fc5678a SHA-1: f5debcc7e3d0644dc111f6ca04948947b030cda2 SHA-256: f8804b3f149020463636686c55f23a4c12ceea1a9cba913cede1099f24033f2e
402 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1204.001 Malicious Link: Malicious Link T1559 Component Object Model Hijacking T1559.001 Component Object Model Hijacking: Component Object Model Hijacking T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell T1059.003 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell

The RTF document contains embedded OLE objects and exploits the Equation Editor vulnerability (CVE-2017-11882) to execute arbitrary code. ClamAV detections indicate it functions as a dropper for a payload, identified as AsyncRAT. The embedded hex data likely contains the second-stage malware.

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 ~1795KB 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_off0000129e.bin
b4a8420210c11dd796ebc90bea1e67699430ca468ab49e995506012129e9b94b
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x129E 903493 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Win.Trojan.AsyncRAT-9914220-0
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.60, consistent with packed or encrypted content.
objdata_01_off001c06a6.bin
be008ac939deab73a9c9495546d8254146b2be045989f91ea9153bd4e8489f59
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x1C06A6 140002 bytes