Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1a1aada722ddb436…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.5 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:43:09 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 86e48b91574a6c5c45f07d74ae4efdd0 SHA-1: c902a5c215060f9b21eb23f54d45fd10f8761f86 SHA-256: 1a1aada722ddb436655f14df72ef92f66e900e92fc9d486164a2fa6e3bf89106
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet containing an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical indicator of malicious intent. This technique is often used to execute arbitrary commands, such as downloading and running a second-stage payload. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN further supports this conclusion.

Heuristics 3

  • 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.
  • 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
dfcefc86f44b284760aa2e8d2e53e62b381b58a4a1b8f83b92d3e2b715950e25		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6673 bytes

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