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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2ad97efedf76fef3…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

32.0 KB Created: 1996-12-17 01:32:42 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: babd40efb4804e8e4a58686ae993e8f8 SHA-1: 588622c29f93706311f8178a83bb948cde21bf2f SHA-256: 2ad97efedf76fef3605953d76bad0c6c252f6bab8955bfbe933ad4dde6a15d62
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1547.001 Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder T1059.001 PowerShell T1059.003 Windows Command Shell

The file contains Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a critical indicator of malicious intent. The heuristics indicate the presence of a legacy Excel formula macro virus, with references to 'Poppy' and 'Narkotic Network'. The macro sheet contains code that appears to infect other workbooks and save them as 'Book1.xls' in the 'xlstart' directory, suggesting an attempt at propagation and persistence. The presence of 'RUN=5' in the heuristics points to the execution of arbitrary commands.

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 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.
  • Legacy Excel formula macro virus marker critical OLE_XLS_FORMULA_MACRO_VIRUS
    Workbook stream contains self-identifying legacy Excel formula macro virus markers. This indicates the document carries formula macro virus content even when no VBA project or modern XLM macro-sheet structure is present.
  • 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.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
61e42ead3f8b07df41e18130173ae48826526e784bbe7a482202f38cc06a4efc		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 12981 bytes

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