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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 34e398598e115c44…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

24.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 693c62cb8de202a0cd083f0b9c3dce07 SHA-1: 1504f762f0fa9c4927254fd245f20761196fa195 SHA-256: 34e398598e115c44bcf40bcc34fb5014e4a438ca3deeee10dca20c9ff36dfbfc
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Service Execution T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious File T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer: Ingress Tool Transfer

The file contains an Excel 4.0 macro sheet, identified by the OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET heuristic. This macro sheet includes strings indicative of WinAPI calls for downloading and executing files, such as URLDownloadToFileA, DownloadToFileA, and ShellExecuteA. The presence of these strings suggests the macro's intent is to download and execute a second-stage payload from a remote source. The OOXML_XLM_BINARY_WINAPI_STRINGS heuristic further confirms the presence of these potentially malicious WinAPI calls within the binary macro sheet.

Heuristics 2

  • 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. The macro sheet is stored as XLSB/BIFF12 binary content, which many XML-only OOXML scanners miss.
  • Binary XLM macro sheet with WinAPI/download strings critical OOXML_XLM_BINARY_WINAPI_STRINGS
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet is stored as BIFF12/XLSB binary data and contains Win32 download or process-execution API strings such as URLDownloadToFileA, ShellExecuteA, or CreateDirectoryA. These strings are high-signal in XLM macro sheets and catch payload-download macros that XML-formula scanners cannot parse.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.bin
99a6a52acb8f5c734f6d86faf89e0637a94ac99f953aa583d2658b47d2e1f9b9
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.bin 194023 bytes