Malicious Office (OLE) / .XLS — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 0476b4e55d3f7271…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

331.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 9af4ccb93d1c73666fa56c07e7315e72 SHA-1: 74c8ef3f25cea5dcb8611e43fae94057c6a4b021 SHA-256: 0476b4e55d3f7271d595890f23a0ebf9dde469ce3ef5cd4241469facd15d964f
242 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The file is an Excel spreadsheet containing Excel 4.0 macros that are automatically executed via the Auto_Open function. These macros utilize dangerous functions like RUN and CALL, and construct strings that appear to be API calls for loading libraries and executing code. The macros also reference external URLs, suggesting a downloader functionality. The presence of the ClamAV detection 'Doc.Downloader.Docusign0521-9864805-0' further supports this assessment.

Heuristics 6

  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    oletools recovered an Auto_Open / Auto_Close entry from an Excel 4.0 macro sheet. The raw BIFF name can be tokenized or partially opaque to byte-string checks, but the recovered macro listing confirms the workbook has an XLM auto-execution entry.
  • XLM Auto_Open with dangerous formula APIs critical OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet contains an Auto_Open / Auto_Close entry and dangerous XLM formula APIs that can invoke programs, write files, or transfer control without VBA.
  • ClamAV: Doc.Downloader.Docusign0521-9864805-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.Docusign0521-9864805-0
  • Reference to ShellExecute API high SC_STR_SHELLEXEC
    Reference to ShellExecute API
  • Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet present medium OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN
    Workbook contains an Excel 4.0 macro sheet sub-stream — XLM is rarely seen in modern legitimate workbooks and was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022.
  • 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 https://ctxpress.com/ds/261120.gif
    • https://ctxpress.com/ds/261120.gif�

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
aa837a287543a9593dc9ad53c5a1043539349d9d7158b9d02f92e2bb7330dc0f
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6677 bytes