Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 17ab700a69c80c03…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

96.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300
MD5: 672eb871d16413c505302778d8bf1cf9 SHA-1: f88277af9b7f69e32b3c7cd74f8b25804933c093 SHA-256: 17ab700a69c80c034abefa11b191c5ef211f534442c7688256fb200d5b2f25a1
202 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The file is an XLSM document containing Excel 4.0 macros, indicated by the 'OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET' and 'OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME' heuristics. The macros utilize dangerous functions like 'CALL' and 'EXEC' to download and execute a second-stage payload from the embedded URLs. The presence of these functions and the embedded URLs strongly suggest a malicious intent to compromise the user's system.

Heuristics 5

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (2 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: EXEC, HALT, WORKBOOK.HIDE, FORMULA.FILL, CALL critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • Suspicious extracted artifact medium EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE
    One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
  • 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://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
086120f5b0b7d67fd4b0845ea344f16dfb1909743259959239330ffc5d49f973		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 209574 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 shell/COM execution token(s).
xlm_sheet_01.xml
b37559ae8e8ebd485f6882c0587e1d8a78ced73936d04fb82f4bd4453af8aecb		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet2.xml 5820 bytes

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