oletools is a package of python tools to analyze Microsoft OLE2 files (also called Structured Storage, Compound File Binary Format or Compound Document File Format), such as Microsoft Office documents or Outlook messages, mainly for malware analysis, forensics and debugging. It is based on the olefile parser. See http://www.decalage.info/python/oletools for more info.
Quick links: Home page - Download/Install - Documentation - Report Issues/Suggestions/Questions - Contact the Author - Repository - Updates on Twitter Cheatsheet
Note: python-oletools is not related to OLETools published by BeCubed Software.
- 2018-05-30 v0.53:
- olevba and mraptor can now parse Word/PowerPoint 2007+ pure XML files (aka Flat OPC format)
- improved support for VBA forms in olevba (oleform)
- rtfobj now displays the CLSID of OLE objects, which is the best way to identify them. Known-bad CLSIDs such as MS Equation Editor are highlighted in red.
- Updated rtfobj to handle obfuscated RTF samples.
- rtfobj now handles the "\'" obfuscation trick seen in recent samples such as https://twitter.com/buffaloverflow/status/989798880295444480, by emulating the MS Word bug described in https://securelist.com/disappearing-bytes/84017/
- msodde: improved detection of DDE formulas in CSV files
- oledir now displays the tree of storage/streams, along with CLSIDs and their meaning.
- common.clsid contains the list of known CLSIDs, and their links to CVE vulnerabilities when relevant.
- oleid now detects encrypted OpenXML files
- fixed bugs in oleobj, rtfobj, oleid, olevba
- 2018-02-18 v0.52:
- New tool msodde to detect and extract DDE links from MS Office files, RTF and CSV;
- Fixed bugs in olevba, rtfobj and olefile, to better handle malformed/obfuscated files;
- Performance improvements in olevba and rtfobj;
- VBA form parsing in olevba;
- Office 2007+ support in oleobj.
See the full changelog for more information.
- oleid: to analyze OLE files to detect specific characteristics usually found in malicious files.
- olevba: to extract and analyze VBA Macro source code from MS Office documents (OLE and OpenXML).
- MacroRaptor: to detect malicious VBA Macros
- msodde: to detect and extract DDE/DDEAUTO links from MS Office documents, RTF and CSV
- pyxswf: to detect, extract and analyze Flash objects (SWF) that may be embedded in files such as MS Office documents (e.g. Word, Excel) and RTF, which is especially useful for malware analysis.
- oleobj: to extract embedded objects from OLE files.
- rtfobj: to extract embedded objects from RTF files.
- olebrowse: A simple GUI to browse OLE files (e.g. MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint documents), to view and extract individual data streams.
- olemeta: to extract all standard properties (metadata) from OLE files.
- oletimes: to extract creation and modification timestamps of all streams and storages.
- oledir: to display all the directory entries of an OLE file, including free and orphaned entries.
- olemap: to display a map of all the sectors in an OLE file.
oletools are used by a number of projects and online malware analysis services, including Viper, REMnux, FAME, Hybrid-analysis.com, Joe Sandbox, Deepviz, Laika BOSS, Cuckoo Sandbox, Anlyz.io, ViperMonkey, pcodedmp, dridex.malwareconfig.com, Snake, DARKSURGEON, and probably VirusTotal. (Please contact me if you have or know a project using oletools)
The recommended way to download and install/update the latest stable release of oletools is to use pip:
- On Linux/Mac:
sudo -H pip install -U oletools - On Windows:
pip install -U oletools
This should automatically create command-line scripts to run each tool from
any directory: olevba, mraptor, rtfobj, etc.
To get the latest development version instead:
- On Linux/Mac:
sudo -H pip install -U https://github.com/decalage2/oletools/archive/master.zip - On Windows:
pip install -U https://github.com/decalage2/oletools/archive/master.zip
See the documentation for other installation options.
The latest version of the documentation can be found online, otherwise a copy is provided in the doc subfolder of the package.
This is a personal open-source project, developed on my spare time. Any contribution, suggestion, feedback or bug report is welcome.
To suggest improvements, report a bug or any issue, please use the issue reporting page, providing all the information and files to reproduce the problem.
You may also contact the author directly to provide feedback.
The code is available in a GitHub repository. You may use it to submit enhancements using forks and pull requests.
This license applies to the python-oletools package, apart from the thirdparty folder which contains third-party files published with their own license.
The python-oletools package is copyright (c) 2012-2018 Philippe Lagadec (http://www.decalage.info)
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
olevba contains modified source code from the officeparser project, published under the following MIT License (MIT):
officeparser is copyright (c) 2014 John William Davison
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.