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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2f9308688d2a28c1…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

106.9 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: dd41f6b73e7ee8f705bb7b3712f92199 SHA-1: 116d41cb9cc91521f133c04f87a938ac0b456f1c SHA-256: 2f9308688d2a28c17c69c0f2168d4dff03fc7e41004d101aa0ad5f5eb72c0418
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an Excel macro-enabled spreadsheet (XLSM) containing Excel 4.0 macros. The heuristics indicate the use of dangerous functions like CALL and EXEC, which are commonly used to download and execute arbitrary code. The document body contains multiple URLs that are likely serving the malicious payload. The presence of an Auto_Open defined name further suggests that the macros are intended to run automatically upon opening the document.

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
9cf577639483a84c18a4933d3e27f255a331eea77d6198cb6ba582a5fa65de0a		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 240381 bytes

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