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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2a01aef0d68b1470…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

83.0 KB Created: 2020-06-22 16:20:38 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: fe69bbe371215f502a471a15119ef38c SHA-1: a99c2360e87ed0664d8e3eda9d270585baaa907e SHA-256: 2a01aef0d68b1470fee50b7566341ab3a870193100aa013c1b6cdc4a4f3822a2
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.002 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.001 PowerShell

The sample is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet. It contains an Auto_Open macro that is designed to evade environment checks and display a lure to the user, instructing them to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content'. This is a common technique for macro-based malware to bypass security settings and execute malicious code. No specific URLs or executable payloads were directly extracted, but the presence of the Auto_Open macro and the user-enablement lure strongly indicate a downloader or droppper functionality.

Heuristics 4

  • 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 environment-evasion close gate critical OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_CLOSE
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes environment checks with GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW, then shows a fake corruption/error message and closes the workbook when the host fails those checks. This is a malware sandbox-evasion pattern, even when the later payload stage is hidden behind obfuscated defined-name flow.
  • 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
572b9e0e6471f57696935dbc62d0a2c24eb4e85f19f0efc2de3b4696a0909496		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 30086 bytes

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