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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1ed66ae579df680a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

275.0 KB Created: 2020-09-20 21:17:44
MD5: c2ca4d5f2632597023b6cf5b496fb4ed SHA-1: 076f6120eb80059c41e8d731d59471a2e9d81ad8 SHA-256: 1ed66ae579df680aae0c4469e916cc97a943e9f600a4d55767755456d6079c75
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 PowerShell T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File

The critical heuristics OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN and OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN indicate the presence of Excel 4.0 macros designed to execute code. The macro script reconstructs a PowerShell command to download a file named 'pd.bat' from the URL https://cutt.ly/ZjsbPXY and then executes it. This indicates a downloader attack pattern.

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
ae426cb66ef43d86386e37121641b357ad51a6fba5f105b8142f8e8f88444475
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1484 bytes