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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 092de9bffe7869c9…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

106.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 95fb8debefd95e8a277efef9084cbc03 SHA-1: eeb855a3b14b33c55414d75aee035d8566f5c042 SHA-256: 092de9bffe7869c9b69fb09a26bf4b1b4203c1c76e93bc2cc195f3833a64f8d4
182 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The sample is an XLSM file containing Excel 4.0 macros, indicated by critical heuristic firings for OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET, OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME, and OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN. These macros utilize dangerous functions like CALL and EXEC, which are commonly used to download and execute malicious payloads. The embedded URLs in the document body are likely the sources for these payloads.

Heuristics 4

  • 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: CALL, EXEC, FORMULA.FILL, 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.
  • 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://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

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
63f9e5eb17c995d0e7d2ee834d0d2e49b6ccfcc236abef3c2751a08932270a4c
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 250355 bytes