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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 33a772f24217d95c…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

106.9 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 53cd839dfb29f4e56904913a35e3ffde SHA-1: d839e94475148b068b576aa86a86099653224ba9 SHA-256: 33a772f24217d95cdaddba2fe068490f2a8b556eb29f4a6d8417910e69477ce8
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel macro-enabled spreadsheet (XLSM) containing Excel 4.0 macros. Critical heuristics indicate the use of dangerous XLM formula APIs like CALL and EXEC, which are commonly used to download and execute payloads. The document body contains URLs that are likely staging points for the second-stage payload. The presence of an Auto_Open defined name further suggests automatic execution upon opening.

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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