Malicious RTF — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 fe4feab807451ddd…

MALICIOUS

RTF

112.4 KB First seen: 2023-08-21
MD5: 68dcb77e95bdaa5c542f0cce1774c53f SHA-1: fd6677e135355b9b1825a673d7fa76c74914e69d SHA-256: fe4feab807451ddd836adbe040d8494c901bf9500564c31f8841033b0d9fb916
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1204.002 Malicious File

The RTF file contains heuristics indicating the presence of an embedded OLE object, specifically related to Equation Editor, and an \objupdate command that forces OLE activation. The document body includes a lure instructing the user to 'Enable editing', a common tactic for macro-based malware. The combination suggests an attempt to exploit a vulnerability through the embedded object after the user is tricked into enabling content.

Heuristics 5

  • 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.
  • \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.
  • OLE object data medium RTF_OBJDATA
    RTF contains 1 \objdata section(s) — embedded OLE objects
  • Embedded OLE object medium RTF_OBJEMB
    RTF contains \objemb — embedded OLE object
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
objdata_00_off00002899.bin
a9b647dcd8aac13cb6efcee9d600843459edc27d17c5f721dccacdbf7dbc83da
rtf-objdata-decoded RTF \objdata at offset 0x2899 1955 bytes