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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1dcc8c329f6d550b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

106.9 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 177af0af9e6c3a3580b5a77c4d644e69 SHA-1: 32b466a7767015aa41b229ced510d6942f37e07b SHA-256: 1dcc8c329f6d550b63e2dadffacd151218f5b1657f44efb0795327b96b688720
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an XLSM file containing Excel 4.0 macros, specifically utilizing the Auto_Open function. The macros employ dangerous functions like CALL and EXEC, which are known to download and execute payloads. The document body contains URLs that are likely used for this purpose, indicating a downloader attack pattern. The specific family is not identifiable from the provided heuristics.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 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: CALL, EXEC, FORMULA.FILL, HALT 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.
  • 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

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
9cf577639483a84c18a4933d3e27f255a331eea77d6198cb6ba582a5fa65de0a
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 240381 bytes