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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 0c162a6cb352e9ba…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

64.3 KB Created: 2022-01-17 17:40:35 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 657c4ce6c5ec5a9192a27c39b1347a95 SHA-1: f84731b1cc9b6603a1e40106e2a17523d9224bbe SHA-256: 0c162a6cb352e9ba93acdc216acd5fedd72415404f64c7a5526752b4ed94c25d
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel 97-2003 Workbook (XLS) containing Excel 4.0 macros, which are automatically executed upon opening due to the presence of an Auto_Open defined name. The macro attempts to lure the user into enabling content by displaying a fake prompt. The macro then executes a command to download a payload from the URL http://0xc12a24f5/cc.html.

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.
  • 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.
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
0807f652a36752efcd354ce3c536f2fe7ed4cd53a3ff1787c33acb378dda90a0
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1073 bytes