Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2e56263d5454fa9e…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:33:17 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-06-28
MD5: 58f003739b7c09763f7265c869918dc6 SHA-1: d9d4b66b542fee53ed11ce161643c1248650cea5 SHA-256: 2e56263d5454fa9eabc152e94717db3ab9eb0564510a1639d2fb5ebed9aa975d
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The critical heuristics indicate the presence of Excel 4.0 macros with an Auto_Open entry, which is a common method for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The macro sheet contains references to dangerous formula APIs, specifically 'RUN', suggesting it is designed to execute arbitrary commands. No specific IOCs like URLs or file paths were extracted, but the technique itself is highly suspicious.

Heuristics 3

  • 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.
  • 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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6468 bytes
SHA-256: 9813a7390ea33f3f4d914eae95c26568f8ce5d172c946eb1e2ce2d8103a36685
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     13 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  deHn
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!A164 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - bbJyvCaeChSl len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - bhYXsmOcUe len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - bzSXNXP len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - dShRRk len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - DZUCMVqkodh len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - Evagjr len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - gLxRtmYkPlE len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - HCzIvDGJTSU len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - HjaRC len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - iVkFFaMDS len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - jpzHyjI len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - MHLSZsmqBUO len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - OPOFsAxY len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - pQKJbD len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - RiSvIFDz len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - RONERDsK len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - siGeYOsHEnfc len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - sIvrZ len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - vLQkLq len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - XDxppRDAT len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 
... (truncated)

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