• Sublime Core Feed
Medium Severity

Attachment with auto-executing macro (unsolicited)

Labels

Malware/Ransomware
Macros
Archive analysis
Header analysis
File analysis
Macro analysis
OLE analysis
Sender analysis

Description

Attachment from an unsolicited sender contains a macro that will auto-execute when the file is opened.

Macros are a common phishing technique used to deploy malware.

References

Sublime Security
Created Aug 17th, 2023 • Last updated Jul 16th, 2025
Feed Source
Sublime Core Feed
Source
GitHub
type.inbound
and any(attachments,
        (
          .file_extension in~ $file_extensions_macros
          or (
                .file_extension is null
                and .file_type == "unknown"
                and .content_type == "application/octet-stream"
                and .size < 100000000
          )
        )
        and any(file.oletools(.).macros.keywords, .type =~ "autoexec")
)
and (
  not profile.by_sender().solicited
  or (
    profile.by_sender().any_messages_malicious_or_spam
    and not profile.by_sender().any_messages_benign
  )
)

// negate replies
and (
  length(headers.references) == 0
  or not any(headers.hops, any(.fields, strings.ilike(.name, "In-Reply-To")))
)
MQL Rule Console
DocsLearning Labs

Playground

Test against your own EMLs or sample data.

Share

Post about this on your socials.

Get Started. Today.

Managed or self-managed. No MX changes.

Get Started