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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2059fae910e43812…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

45.5 KB Created: 2010-05-02 23:36:12 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 05eed561a54c74b3c0477dc77f3452f8 SHA-1: 6a6c77c91b1d29e8c9b2150d2bbf265f907c1e44 SHA-256: 2059fae910e4381257a81ce5c564ced3ec085558b2dffdd47b30642330524692
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1547.001 Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet containing an Auto_Open macro. Heuristics indicate the use of dangerous formula APIs like RUN, suggesting the macro is designed to execute arbitrary commands or download further payloads. The presence of 'XLM_DANGEROUS_FN' and 'OLE_XLS_FORMULA_MACRO_VIRUS' markers strongly points to a legacy macro virus. The macro sheet is named 'XL4Poppy', which is also listed as an IOC.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • Legacy Excel formula macro virus marker critical OLE_XLS_FORMULA_MACRO_VIRUS
    Workbook stream contains self-identifying legacy Excel formula macro virus markers. This indicates the document carries formula macro virus content even when no VBA project or modern XLM macro-sheet structure is present.
  • 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
e6394d9146d40426439430336963d93ab3ef1a6d46b6a9bc207c3a3c6b04415f		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 47483 bytes

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