Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 0e138052a168da5e…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.5 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:38:36 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-06-13
MD5: c7e37483f0925859922fe7baef571e6f SHA-1: d2c73e958f66c567931bbf2f7d4358d2f6cf77cc SHA-256: 0e138052a168da5e44925cf6124497d6702b37fb628b6a9b96ed5252b2236683
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains critical heuristic firings indicating the presence of Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros with an Auto_Open entry. This suggests the macro is designed to execute automatically upon opening the workbook. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN indicates the macro is likely intended to download and execute a secondary payload, a common technique for initial execution.

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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6878 bytes
SHA-256: 4a992ba23fc72870a0434be182bcb664d09f0274a140e89b172d4befda3d93ae
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     17 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  SnJIFsHY
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - aBlRLeuOZnjZ len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!A181 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - BAQOgicAK len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - cCCsJMvSdnuq len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - cJYrFoWpKG len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - CWFoNXVAv len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hbFbnVH len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - jVBvvcnNGGU len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ldUAb len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - oAapoLrrij len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - OrjOgjoRpEq len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - otbJGy len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - QVUNWLR len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - sNNiPWZfqL len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - tlQscii len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - txeHb len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - uInsLXh len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - WrmTjmIhAzy len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - WsoczclF len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - YYZcihqdS len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ZqrOQSdd len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00
... (truncated)

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