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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1d7126fd18e3c5ae…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

231.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: e553206103461e1552d5c6cc4294a7f5 SHA-1: e05e7090cc2edb96646ea5931138657ac50efeea SHA-256: 1d7126fd18e3c5aed2450a083dbd52819e0c01a599eab582f875eb83e2bdc9c3
240 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet (XLM) containing an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening. The document body displays a "Protected content" message, instructing the user to "Enable Editing" and "Enable Content", a typical social engineering tactic to bypass security warnings and execute the embedded macro. The XLM macro uses dangerous formula APIs and includes environment evasion checks, indicating a deliberate attempt to execute malicious functions. ClamAV detection further confirms its malicious nature.

Heuristics 5

  • 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: Xls.Dropper.Agent-9752131-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Dropper.Agent-9752131-0
  • XLM Auto_Open environment-evasion HALT gate high OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_HALT
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes multiple GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW environment checks and halts execution when the host does not match the expected user environment. This is a common sandbox-evasion pattern in XLM malware and is stronger than a bare XLM macro-sheet indicator.
  • 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
35aa37bd3db15a8d2ea08ee8b255b78c5057065a099e87b4d83ddf736107999f		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 328928 bytes

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