Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis — malicious · 25e771e8b6b57f62

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

1.18 MB Created: 2019-10-22 07:10:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel

MD5: 64e0a3f6f60d5eb459bd11146421d675 SHA-1: a3816c37d0fbe26a87d1cc7beff91ce5816039e7 SHA-256: 25e771e8b6b57f62a9605ee7b12f43cd3c0298e129fb4c9d4921a06c326f82bc

300 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.005 Visual Basic

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a critical finding. The macro is designed to execute a PowerShell command that downloads and executes a second-stage payload. This is evidenced by the heuristic firings for OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN, OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN, SC_STR_POWERSHELL, and SC_STR_BITSADMIN. The reconstructed PowerShell command is 'powershell.exe -Command IEX (New-Object('Net.WebClient')).'DoWnlo'.

Heuristics 7

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.
Suspicious cmd.exe invocation with execution flag high SC_STR_CMD

Suspicious cmd.exe invocation with execution flag
Reference to PowerShell high SC_STR_POWERSHELL

Reference to PowerShell
Reference to bitsadmin (download) high SC_STR_BITSADMIN

Reference to bitsadmin (download)
Suspicious extracted artifact high EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE

One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
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` `f663df2d1cbbf5f9a5eb524770e39d034dffdb3432267325c96fed5301141629`	xlm-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing)	1907 bytes
Detection ClamAV: No threats found Obfuscation or payload: likely Carved artifact contains 1 shell/COM execution token(s). Carved macro source contains an auto-exec entry point and execution/download terms.

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