Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis — malicious · 210468bf9c97e5bb

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

54.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel

MD5: 0ab5d82db3541b40b3ef56d03efe8a3f SHA-1: e44e018503f87fa50b1ad1e7e56a3f4a3b56eff9 SHA-256: 210468bf9c97e5bbae46e464625550d20079fb3766ad33d490f06e0cd037163a

300 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros and VBA code that utilizes the URLDownloadToFile API. The VBA script reconstructs the URL 'http://FilesB60' and a filename 'FilesB56' from concatenated strings, indicating an attempt to download a second-stage payload. The presence of an Auto_Open macro in the XLM sheet and the 'SE_ENABLE_LURE' heuristic firing suggest a social engineering tactic to trick the user into enabling macros, which then triggers the download. The DOC BODY text further supports this by mimicking a DocuSign interface.

Heuristics 7

Reference to URLDownloadToFile API critical SC_STR_URLDOWNLOAD

Reference to URLDownloadToFile API
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.
URLDownloadToFile in VBA critical OLE_VBA_DOWNLOAD

URLDownloadToFile in 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.
VBA macros detected medium OLE_VBA_MACROS

Document contains VBA macro code
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 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`xlm_macros.txt` `ade26a0bb1c2aa203f55ffd25d181d5b9fc8ebfd49f7f19aafa7d0490995b13e`	xlm-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing)	5050 bytes
`macros.bas` `abfbc455a90680afe830c60d863d62e5590018d1b45e6f53cb7f98e091ddd142`	vba-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source)	1820 bytes

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