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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2e4aaed7a35ebdf0…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

109.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: ea4f8a831620ae2e9e086616730cb7f9 SHA-1: bb38018cbf21e1bd83967d2d2802d37989f2a87c SHA-256: 2e4aaed7a35ebdf063ef591e6c13dbeeabedf2729002f18b6089e319ff108267
208 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet (XLSM) containing hidden sheets and utilizing dangerous XLM functions like CALL and EXEC. These functions are used to download and execute payloads from external URLs. The document body explicitly contains URLs that are likely used for this purpose, indicating a downloader attack pattern. The specific family is not identifiable from the provided heuristics.

Heuristics 6

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (2 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: EXEC, HALT, FORMULA, WORKBOOK.HIDE, CALL 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.
  • Suspicious extracted artifact medium 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.
  • Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET
    Excel workbook contains 1 hidden sheet(s) — hidden sheets are commonly used to conceal macro code, staging data, or intermediate payload construction
  • 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 https://giftsonlinejo.com/drms/ind.html
    • https://kurtos.eu/drms/ind.html
    • 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 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
def365b5d7a87e6d02a6e16eb8f12a49fdc817651fd2675b7065c2f67b4c736b
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet2.xml 3531 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.xml
7533330654b8e753d53bb8f9ac5e758b933e3ee32dea384bde4afa6209ed2d29
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 205649 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 shell/COM execution token(s).