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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1e460da697671655…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .DOC

173.0 KB Created: 2020-04-08 14:30:53 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 90db2972d6f2351716aeea1500e42466 SHA-1: 274245583e46b400e04de41463955bc20eb38686 SHA-256: 1e460da697671655637111418255dcb94cdcc09f9b7e61810be31a49ba49a1dc
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an encrypted Excel 4.0 macro sheet, indicated by multiple heuristic firings including OLE_XLM_ENCRYPTED_MACROSHEET and OLE_XLM_DOCPROPS_MACROSHEET_INVENTORY. The presence of an OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN heuristic further suggests that macros are intended to execute automatically. While no specific payload or URL was extracted, the structure strongly implies a macro-based delivery mechanism for a malicious payload.

Heuristics 3

  • Encrypted Excel 4.0 macro sheet high OLE_XLM_ENCRYPTED_MACROSHEET
    Workbook contains an Excel 4.0 macro sheet and BIFF FILEPASS encryption. Password-protected XLM macro sheets, especially the default Excel password path, are a common malware evasion pattern because static formula extraction may fail until the workbook is decrypted.
  • OLE metadata lists many Excel 4.0 macro sheets high OLE_XLM_DOCPROPS_MACROSHEET_INVENTORY
    Workbook contains a BIFF Excel 4.0 macro-sheet marker and its clear OLE DocumentSummaryInformation stream lists many MacroN sheet titles. This is a useful static signal when FILEPASS encryption prevents formula extraction from the workbook stream.
  • 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.