Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2aba9f9fa7dcc636…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

105.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: f9e7c203f654a6037022e97704611995 SHA-1: 6848cbf404ee790809098841e1d204a5797b60f0 SHA-256: 2aba9f9fa7dcc63683b4765e82f2c4d6ae452b8b4c050fc5f1548d5d593b3db5
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet that contains an Auto_Open macro. The macro uses dangerous XLM functions like CALL and EXEC, which are known to be used for downloading and executing payloads. The document body contains a list of URLs that are likely used to host the payload. The script's intent is to download and execute a second-stage payload from the embedded URLs.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: CALL, EXEC, FORMULA.FILL, HALT critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
1ac8164566eb69dad25e2fb55eafdc9b2a3eac004a1f0cc291930400a77c99df		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 230169 bytes

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