Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1b173414176e8f0b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:41:22 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-06-30
MD5: 656c8225c2e50af3ff83a6c586b5d227 SHA-1: 01e314a9dbdefddd735fb05fd44196fcea46ba95 SHA-256: 1b173414176e8f0b80ed8208c41b851ea40a11aaed33e0c5975ab0d0fceb80d4
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 that contains an Auto_Open defined name, indicating that it is designed to automatically execute code upon opening. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro attempts to execute arbitrary commands. While the specific payload is not visible, the technique strongly implies an attempt to download and execute a second-stage 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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6830 bytes
SHA-256: 4fa6af52696712149a987a6c798e573d6eb8986e269eb2789d0081dc9d86d8dd
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     18 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  wsDAvMscd
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - agMjnhqlEqyK len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!G161 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - eGIFxFaFUF len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - HeNJgZl len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hhArfvEkKD len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - IOFwqKMTy len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - JHqPEsNRdJkc len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - lIlRKJlnHV len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - lpSlITMvp len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - MkrItTVXB len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - nHlqc len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - PwhEZWtxv len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - SKABBLbcrRH len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - uckilfYDRfY len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - UIDXrfS len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - UvcESZpUaDmi len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - UxXSqjM len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - VgNMu len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - vqVvehPuG len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - WTIvGxhQwrLY len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - zEGgm len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ 
... (truncated)

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