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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 0c7e9f83a9c75a17…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

230.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: d790e5e5a15c0b6bf4f3cbfa4a563e09 SHA-1: 9a5c3c7af8c933be34d980365c9698b5e328b798 SHA-256: 0c7e9f83a9c75a1774b927a52d50546085c619ea7b65935ba0120be46c29499d
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an Excel file containing Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro. The document body displays a message prompting the user to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content', a common lure for macro-enabled malicious documents. The presence of an Auto_Open macro and the user-facing prompt strongly indicate an attempt to execute malicious code upon opening.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • XLM Auto_Open environment-evasion HALT gate high OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_HALT
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes multiple GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW environment checks and halts execution when the host does not match the expected user environment. This is a common sandbox-evasion pattern in XLM malware and is stronger than a bare XLM macro-sheet indicator.
  • 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
49c692f18a6b61bb9e6072e9ad4cfac3d3f5ebbc0c8c9d65dd5ad2ae396b4727
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 330352 bytes