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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1206c8eb45b76780…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

143.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-31
MD5: 6ef723865c457767e5efde87b2cca381 SHA-1: b5528057999d240356956210458287b64ae7b56d SHA-256: 1206c8eb45b76780ee6653c3a7a0f91373a7c09354e6a44e51ad13f8953646f1
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros with an Auto_Open entry, indicating automatic execution upon opening. It also includes a lure to enable macros by impersonating DocuSign. The extracted URLs are likely used to download a secondary payload, a common tactic for macro-based malware.

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.
  • 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
  • Document signing service impersonation lure medium SE_DOCUSIGN_LURE
    Document impersonates DocuSign, Adobe Sign, or a similar signing service in a signing-request context

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
c06303a4d2d9f3242c9a0e11a903b4059f80ff43a79c026b8de7cea5292556c9
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 2730 bytes