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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 12e04bb9a72645f8…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

331.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 31268038bc6b2adb7a49d97108d9a650 SHA-1: 645ab2881d8d8f134551fe3bd04fb781f31b98f1 SHA-256: 12e04bb9a72645f8b29486e5baf9e95dd7194e8c22bfcc65444ef3d03798c8c1
242 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, including an Auto_Open macro, which is a critical finding. The macros utilize dangerous functions like RUN and CALL, and attempt to construct a URL using concatenated strings, indicating a downloader functionality. The presence of the ShellExecute API reference further supports the execution of external code. The primary IOC is the constructed URL which is likely used to fetch a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 6

  • 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.
  • ClamAV: Doc.Downloader.Docusign0521-9864805-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.Docusign0521-9864805-0
  • Reference to ShellExecute API high SC_STR_SHELLEXEC
    Reference to ShellExecute API
  • 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.
  • 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 https://ump.edu.pe/ds/261120.gif
    • https://ump.edu.pe/ds/261120.gif�

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
56d07016068e454a1af96b6cee33e5364bc7ae97582ff73833a2c41ba0035917
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6675 bytes