Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 03f6ec477f0582bb…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

593.3 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300
MD5: 15560107d8a1264aa3b3b8b88048ecb4 SHA-1: d6243cffb118ad9f6462bd76045aa4a3652520d8 SHA-256: 03f6ec477f0582bb8bcc55eca07622cff5ca57c2b804e899afd227fa06f9719b
250 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

This Excel 4.0 macro-enabled document (XLSM) contains critical heuristic firings indicating the use of dangerous XLM formula APIs like EXEC and HALT. The macro sheet explicitly uses SAVE.COPY.AS to save a file named 'Nioka.meposv' and EXEC to run it, suggesting it's a downloader for a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 6

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: EXEC, HALT critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.GreenEnable052-9863734-1 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.GreenEnable052-9863734-1
  • Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET
    Excel workbook contains 2 hidden sheet(s) — hidden sheets are commonly used to conceal macro code, staging data, or intermediate payload construction
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/
    • http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
ff1734ec2098b716792e5cfacd8b495899f0f9820516f5553a76fc028d540863		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 2472 bytes

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.