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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1eada510670dffe5…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

83.0 KB Created: 2020-06-22 16:20:38 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: f7ba28d76229a780717120f7fd0d6e37 SHA-1: adbdace8847aa3822dd94284337d9f6a9212189b SHA-256: 1eada510670dffe57447c5a786a440c4472e416d6bb9ece2c018526e6447688c
220 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.002 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet (XLM) that contains an Auto_Open macro, a common technique for executing malicious code upon opening. The document body explicitly prompts the user to enable editing and content, which is a lure to bypass security measures. ClamAV identified the file as 'Xls.Dropper.Agent-8502603-0', indicating it functions as a dropper. No specific network indicators or further payload details were extracted from the provided evidence.

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 environment-evasion close gate critical OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_CLOSE
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes environment checks with GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW, then shows a fake corruption/error message and closes the workbook when the host fails those checks. This is a malware sandbox-evasion pattern, even when the later payload stage is hidden behind obfuscated defined-name flow.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Dropper.Agent-8502603-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Dropper.Agent-8502603-0
  • 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.
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
477c56f2ee909b33a13afc1582ea320b0e8180e48d4896dc9ab7190094c69b18		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 30591 bytes

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