VBA hooks the VBE-editor / macro-list keys to evade inspection

OLE_VBA_VBE_KEY_HOOK_EVASION

← All detection heuristics · Office

high OLE_VBA_VBE_KEY_HOOK_EVASION

What it means

VBA reroutes Alt+F11 (Visual Basic editor) and/or Alt+F8 (macro list) through Application.OnKey to intercept attempts to view the macro code.

Why it fires

Application.OnKey can rebind keyboard shortcuts. A macro that captures Alt+F11 (the Visual Basic editor) or Alt+F8 (the macro dialog) is intercepting the exact keystrokes an analyst or user would press to inspect the code — frequently to hide or remove the viral module while it is resident. This anti-analysis behaviour is characteristic of resident Excel macro viruses, not legitimate documents.

Other Office heuristics

OLE_VBA_AFFINE_MSI_DOWNLOADER OLE_VBA_AUTOEXEC_FRAGMENTED_SHELL OLE_VBA_DESTRUCTIVE_WORKBOOK_SHUTDOWN OLE_VBA_BIDIRECTIONAL_MACROCOPY_REPLICATION OOXML_BRAND_LINK_MISMATCH_LURE CVE_2016_7262 POLYGLOT_OOXML_REL_COMMAND OLE_RAW_PCODE_CROSS_DOCUMENT_REPLICATION OLE_VBA_CROSS_WORKBOOK_REPLICATION OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN OFFICE_DEFAULT_PASSWORD_VBA_DROP_EXEC OFFICE_EMBEDDED_SWF EMBEDDED_OFFICE_CHILD_STATIC_TRIAGE OFFICE_EMBEDDED_MACRO_OBJECT OLE_EMBEDDED_EXE OLE_VBA_EMBEDDED_PE_DROPPER OLE_ENCRYPTED_AND_MALFORMED CVE_2017_11882_EQUATION_NATIVE_CMD_RELATED CVE_2017_11882 OLE_EQUATION_OLE10NATIVE_DOWNLOADER OLE_MTEF_NATIVE_CODE_STUB OLE_EQUATION_OLE10NATIVE_SHELLCODE OOXML_XLM_MACRO_IN_WORKSHEET OLE_XLS5_LAROUX_MACRO_VIRUS