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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 10dbd787a44ae686…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

159.0 KB Created: 2012-10-08 01:41:41 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 20bbd7c803982c2a1e6e633a14a4ed83 SHA-1: d11186fd2cd4311098d3c75bb5885df3e498f766 SHA-256: 10dbd787a44ae68699a1ef58f50a9d96583dd455805556fb6c6438f1b109ba29
588 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution T1137.001 Office Application Build Customizations: Office Smart Guard T1059.001 PowerShell

The file contains VBA macros that are triggered upon opening the workbook, including Workbook_Open and Auto_Open events. These macros utilize WScript.Shell and CreateObject to launch processes, indicating an intent to execute arbitrary code. The presence of a lure instructing the user to enable macros or copy/paste clipboard content further supports a malicious intent, likely to download and execute a second-stage payload. The ClamAV detection ID 'Xls.Virus.Mailcab-6702020-0' also confirms its malicious nature.

Heuristics 15

  • Shell() call in VBA critical OLE_VBA_SHELL
    Shell() call in VBA
  • WScript.Shell usage critical OLE_VBA_WSCRIPT
    WScript.Shell usage
  • VBA WMI Win32_Process launcher critical OLE_VBA_WMI_PROCESS_CREATE
    VBA macro builds or references a WMI moniker for Win32_Process and invokes .Create to start a command. This is a high-confidence macro execution chain that often hides the WMI class name through string concatenation or helper functions.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Virus.Mailcab-6702020-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Virus.Mailcab-6702020-0
  • Reference to Windows Script Host high SC_STR_WSCRIPT
    Reference to Windows Script Host
  • Workbook_Open macro high OLE_VBA_WBOPEN
    Workbook_Open macro
  • Auto_Open macro high OLE_VBA_AUTO
    Auto_Open macro
  • CreateObject call high OLE_VBA_CREATEOBJ
    CreateObject call
  • GetObject call high OLE_VBA_GETOBJ
    GetObject call
  • 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.
  • Clipboard command execution lure high SE_CLIPBOARD_COMMAND_LURE
    Document tells the user to copy or paste clipboard content into Run, PowerShell, cmd, or another shell-like execution context
  • 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.
  • VBA macros detected medium OLE_VBA_MACROS
    Document contains VBA macro code
  • 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
  • Environ() call (env variable access) low OLE_VBA_ENVIRON
    Environ() call (env variable access)

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas
8062d2b100a3015471dc7bb44e48650ba8b0d4c9c7319f755ad1beb67b355b91		 vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source) 28963 bytes

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