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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 20709abb62547f4b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

6.92 MB Created: 2010-08-21 02:45:31 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: d3607c6f9187dbd0c1e79fccc55d5513 SHA-1: 9f2fa965fdb54ab8ef058f27845c2d663d6739e1 SHA-256: 20709abb62547f4b6d947795c8e127858be24dc4235a8cad27bfe3132331c18d
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File

The file is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled workbook. Heuristics indicate the presence of an Auto_Open macro, which is a common technique for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The macro uses dangerous formula APIs such as RUN, suggesting it's designed to execute arbitrary commands. The document body contains what appears to be financial or inventory data, likely serving as a lure. No specific family could be identified, but the technique is indicative of older macro-based malware delivery.

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
7b563900ca4b8824b33121732e01b3c00e478d037cf7ba43a16e1d5d954b9e0f		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 3310299 bytes

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