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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 0a581a3594f050a6…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

106.9 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 508b8863d2ec32d61520a079e4c963e2 SHA-1: fa617808fc2d6e27fd6b600177560fffd586973c SHA-256: 0a581a3594f050a6bfb15ff48c229a00d436bbda3ba2188d39d94fc8a8192f80
182 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

This XLSM file contains Excel 4.0 macros, which are known to be used for malicious purposes. The macros utilize dangerous functions like CALL and EXEC to download and execute a second-stage payload from the URLs listed in the document body. The presence of these functions and the embedded URLs strongly indicate an attempt to compromise the user's system.

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
9cf577639483a84c18a4933d3e27f255a331eea77d6198cb6ba582a5fa65de0a
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 240381 bytes