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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 175eee46f528e68f…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

329.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 48053a311bae0e0265d1bfac1fb32f4b SHA-1: b7fb48defd29e56f0a95e3b7d3bf4f364ed63d14 SHA-256: 175eee46f528e68f179aed7c7fc848b242353dc68d4d42ddc7a34d7f8ec90857
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 entry, which is a critical finding indicating automatic execution upon opening. The macros reference ShellExecute and a URL, suggesting the file acts as a downloader for a second-stage payload. The ClamAV detection further supports its malicious nature.

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 http://cargohl.com/ds/161120.gif�

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
de64c8aedb9841e9622ce89b4c2a59532a2613bac9a0b05117fd5443ba276b2f
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 7888 bytes