Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 20886eeef5d5c283…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:43:44 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-10-16
MD5: e438f226359443d1aec93a1d5398c35a SHA-1: a049f73db1d73dc0128d0708a333c0842a85053c SHA-256: 20886eeef5d5c2839b5e4313514ab4a02ede3ac0690aaaa5ddf562a16012af3d
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet containing an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical indicator of malicious intent. This mechanism is commonly used to execute arbitrary code upon opening the document, typically to download and run a secondary payload. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN further supports this conclusion.

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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6386 bytes
SHA-256: 996bff20b0b5767e3a9a81a1cc2192c19152d6340b7a56ff8baaef3fea2c535f
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  oIAtB
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!E139 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - eYKnHXFFRaw len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - GLKiPkkE len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hkDPLIJS len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - HkxewsJ len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - HXlwxqL len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - IBmvpqGWinaI len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - IvRVznTNaf len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - JcyMTO len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - JHCCgLF len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - KGcnKW len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - LrYXcybJqTGR len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - oFEkWh len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - oKYSYRA len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - pVYBjH len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - QvsIX len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - SniqYvUmKm len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - VAFfQb len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - vkrIEnV len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - wjYwXdk len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - xdboEBEfF len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST :
... (truncated)

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