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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1abf392441f78fdf…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:28:49 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-04-27
MD5: 2f63fb706bd34646476ed7c8691f6512 SHA-1: 1a536bceb04d81c2b7df8c5106b7ae5c75c1d86c SHA-256: 1abf392441f78fdf626cc921626cd35f26bffab717fef1205a1433ee79b1eac1
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1059.001 PowerShell T1059.003 Windows Command Shell

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet. Static analysis identified an Auto_Open defined name, indicating that macros will execute automatically upon opening. The critical heuristic OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN firing with RUN=0 suggests the macro attempts to execute a command. While the specific command is not fully recoverable from the provided output, the presence of Auto_Open and the dangerous function usage strongly indicates malicious intent, likely to download and execute a secondary payload.

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
48e8d7fd343e03d0ca758a1297413407bd3ec4246410e8dbeef081139f9cfa58
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6401 bytes