OLE Object Scanner

OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) is a Microsoft technology that allows embedding external content - documents, spreadsheets, images, or executables - inside Office files. While OLE is a legitimate feature for creating compound documents, it has been exploited in numerous malware campaigns. Attackers embed malicious executables inside OLE packages (a special OLE wrapper), which execute when the user double-clicks the embedded object icon. Our OLE object scanner detects all embedded OLE content by parsing the Office Open XML structure and analyzing the magic bytes of each embedded file to determine its true content type.

1. 1. Upload an Office document: Click the upload area or drag and drop a DOCX, XLSX, or PPTX file (up to 100 MB). All analysis happens locally in your browser - your file never leaves your device.
2. 2. Review the scan results: Our OLE object scanner lists every embedded object with its detected type, size, file path, and risk level. The risk distribution bar shows the overall security posture at a glance, with dangerous objects highlighted in red.
3. 3. Take action on findings: Objects flagged as High or Critical risk - executables, OLE packages, and unknown binaries - warrant investigation. For security assessments, recommend that users remove suspicious OLE objects from the document before distribution.

• Safe (None): Standard embedded content like images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP) and common media files. These pose no direct security risk and are normal in many Office documents.
• Low Risk: Embedded documents like PDFs, plain text, or other structured data formats that could potentially contain embedded content themselves but are typically safe.
• Medium Risk: OLE compound documents, ZIP archives, and unknown binary objects. OLE packages are of particular concern - they are wrappers that can contain any file type, including executables. Archives could contain malicious files when extracted.
• High Risk: Executable code formats like Java class files. While less common in Office documents, any executable code embedded in a document is a security concern.
• Critical Risk: Native executables: Windows EXE/DLL files, ELF binaries, and scripts. These can execute arbitrary code on the target system when the embedded object is activated. Immediate investigation is recommended.

Our OLE object scanner analyzes Office Open XML formats (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX) and does not support legacy binary formats (DOC, XLS, PPT). The scanner detects embedded objects by their file paths within the ZIP structure and identifies content types using magic byte signatures, but does not extract or decompile the actual content. Password-protected or encrypted documents cannot be scanned. For comprehensive analysis, consider using this tool alongside the Macro/VBA Detector and Phishing Link Detector. All processing in this tool is performed entirely in your browser - no data is uploaded to any server, and no files leave your device.