Malicious RTF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 f90b24cd6cee5036…

MALICIOUS

RTF

2.53 MB First seen: 2022-08-09
MD5: df4f9f41e0b8df80d6aa4b2004820f48 SHA-1: d4868378306b98f42989ac0ebb7a3268fdaf84d9 SHA-256: f90b24cd6cee503666e384dfef7c9b828ec98a8de6e2db4c4a8afa2aafe6dcb1
382 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious File T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious Attachment T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter T1059.003 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell T1566 Phishing T1566.001 Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment

The RTF document contains an embedded OLE object that exploits CVE-2017-11882 via the Equation Editor. This exploit is designed to drop and execute a second-stage payload, indicated by the presence of a PE header within the hex-encoded object data. The extracted path 'C:\Path\Client.exe' suggests the intended execution location of the dropped 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 ~1694KB 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_off000012c5.bin
f053b007e937bdb7ec072a3f53464e560e9a3ec53cf167d278743ae80ef956fa
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x12C5 853317 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact entropy is 7.41, consistent with packed or encrypted content.
objdata_01_off001a7ef4.bin
ffd8c2482cc64da211bcb7ca32c7331bf3796ad5ca2159f697062f334496c915
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x1A7EF4 187349 bytes