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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 172e6e9950bae3bc…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

228.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 1f26f4a5e3db87915a95cdd15f930a19 SHA-1: 3558554cf22e371d5d9e34af01e20e0048ff8763 SHA-256: 172e6e9950bae3bc1851d5c8acaed55e10f380c8a67370d33286aa115ac9cce6
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code within older Excel versions. The document body mimics a legitimate prompt to enable editing and content, further suggesting a social engineering lure to bypass security measures. The presence of environment evasion techniques indicates an attempt to hinder analysis.

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.
  • 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.
  • XLM Auto_Open environment-evasion HALT gate high OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_HALT
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes multiple GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW environment checks and halts execution when the host does not match the expected user environment. This is a common sandbox-evasion pattern in XLM malware and is stronger than a bare XLM macro-sheet indicator.
  • 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
b0e5a9f932d68020a5998be7f4be4d63a1277dee618fe4d6d3aff339bd567ef4		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 329284 bytes

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