Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis — malicious · 2575b7709e05cd3d

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

42.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel

MD5: e016a9a6c1cf8d1353bc90c10fc1593f SHA-1: 9ed462fd025cb086542d006afdf134e409e4b481 SHA-256: 2575b7709e05cd3d4232127f55ff6a3118ad5bf0d2c8e4013333dd20f89bb45a

140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.001 PowerShell T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The file is an Excel 4.0 spreadsheet containing an Auto_Open macro, indicated by the OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN and OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME heuristics. The OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN heuristic specifically flags the use of dangerous functions like RUN within the macro. This suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary commands upon opening the spreadsheet, a common technique for downloading and running a second-stage payload.

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.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`xlm_macros.txt` `7e7021cf20dc558c1d97f599cfc8d3faa8f35b1c02a5c36f85015e173f643638`	xlm-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing)	8745 bytes

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