AN0796: Analytic 0796
Monitor Office Suite applications (Outlook, Word mail merge, Excel macros) for abnormal automated message sending, especially when macros or scripts trigger email delivery. Detect patterns of impersonation language (urgent, payment, executive request) combined with anomalous execution of Office macros.
Analyst context for executives and security teams
This analytic matters because abnormal email sending from Office applications can turn trusted business tools into a channel for fraud, impersonation, or internal message abuse. For leaders, the key question is whether the organization can distinguish legitimate Office automation, such as mail merge or approved macros, from unusual scripted or macro-driven message delivery with suspicious business language.
Executive priority
Prioritize this as an email, identity, and SOC-readiness validation point. Executives should ask whether high-risk workflows involving Outlook, Word mail merge, Excel macros, and automated messaging are governed, logged, and reviewable. The business value is strongest for fraud reduction, incident triage, compliance evidence around user activity monitoring, and validating that approved automation does not create an unmonitored communications path.
Technical view
SOC and detection teams should validate monitoring for Office Suite applications generating automated or unusual email activity, especially when Outlook, Word mail merge, or Excel macros are involved. The analytic description supports looking for combinations of anomalous Office macro or script execution and impersonation-themed message content such as urgency, payment requests, or executive-request language. Because no ATT&CK tactic, relationship context, or formal detection logic is supplied, teams should treat this as a detection-design prompt rather than a ready rule.
Likely telemetry
- Office Suite application activity logs where available
- Outlook message-sending activity and volume patterns
- Word mail merge usage evidence
- Excel macro execution evidence
- Script or macro-triggered email delivery indicators
Detection direction
- Baseline legitimate Office automation, including approved mail merge, scheduled reporting, and macro-enabled business processes, before alerting on volume alone.
- Correlate automated message sending with Office macro or script execution rather than relying only on suspicious language.
- Tune for combinations of urgency, payment, or executive-request language with anomalous sender behavior to reduce false positives from normal business communications.
- Validate whether telemetry captures the initiating Office application and user context; missing process or macro context is a likely blind spot.
- Review privacy, legal, and compliance constraints before inspecting message content, and use metadata-first detection where appropriate.
Mitigation priorities
- Inventory and govern approved Office automation that can send email.
- Restrict or review macro-enabled workflows that trigger message delivery, especially for users or processes with broad recipient reach.
- Apply least-privilege and change-control expectations to business processes using mail merge, macros, or scripts for outbound communication.
- Ensure incident response playbooks cover investigation of suspicious Office-originated email activity, including user validation and containment of risky automation.
- Use awareness and approval workflows for payment or executive-request communications where impersonation language is a concern.
Analyst notes and limits
The supplied object is a MITRE detection analytic for Office Suite monitoring, not a full ATT&CK technique. Its value is in prompting coverage validation across Office automation, macro execution, and suspicious email-sending behavior. Local baselines are essential because legitimate departments may use mail merge, macros, or automated messaging heavily.
Official detection logic, tactics, relationships, and related techniques were not supplied. This take does not assert active exploitation, attribution, impact, or guaranteed detection. Environment-specific Office logging, email security controls, privacy rules, and approved automation inventories are required to operationalize it.
Analytic 0796
Monitor Office Suite applications (Outlook, Word mail merge, Excel macros) for abnormal automated message sending, especially when macros or scripts trigger email delivery. Detect patterns of impersonation language (urgent, payment, executive request) combined with anomalous execution of Office macros.
How security teams should use this page
Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.
All related ATT&CK context
No relationships are available in the current normalized data for this object.
Object version and sync metadata
The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates .
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.1 | 1.0 | Current bundle | 669cf347d272… |
Mirrored ATT&CK source object
The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.
External references and citations
MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.
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mitre-attack AN0796Open source URL
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