Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 0516101ee4b918e4…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:27:42 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 93a6f99f2102cba82bccbf36815b2346 SHA-1: a8188b8721c64609925e765aa94df94130bda3bd SHA-256: 0516101ee4b918e41f5302426f80767cc6f0cd8a7eb52b541e9b286690800e2c
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The critical heuristics indicate the presence of Excel 4.0 macros with an Auto_Open entry, specifically using dangerous formula APIs like RUN. This strongly suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code upon opening the workbook. The macro sheet likely contains obfuscated commands to download and execute a secondary payload, a common technique for initial access and further compromise.

Heuristics 3

  • 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.
  • 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.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
b5a62c9e8269a92c7088c10403d718349ed64150528a83b43c05e50a407fb5eb		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6539 bytes

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