Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 38afef859f38dd50…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:42:29 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-07-07
MD5: 978bc6a0cb1636fc932725c2e709a755 SHA-1: 80b11c2239e1f81e76a2cd746e4817a1a797d7f3 SHA-256: 38afef859f38dd502ba89bddf71da45aa3410cdf1770f44eb6d4aac41e9db43c
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical finding indicating automatic execution upon opening. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code. While no specific URLs or hashes were extracted, the technique strongly implies the download and execution of a secondary malicious payload.

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) 6376 bytes
SHA-256: 6142e6372b10fdc3284414dd8225043ee70f9e5c7c393731769b2e47bb9083fe
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     12 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  cVe
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - AbWgH len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!E162 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - aZOgHY len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - CgpFO len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - cHUFxgqAEgR len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - FbfcFQhObb len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - fFopWzedhE len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - HvdaTB len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - INIvTfVel len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - mUZiPefDLU len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - NYHtyYtD len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - OCoTkzPc len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - QWbglbKzZ len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - UBdGYb len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - VeBikaDTfEF len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - vRmEU len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - WaQFJvsWXyAi len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - WmwkGXMB len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - WsvFLVvNSmv len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - xQOzBAcA len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - YaPUGnoDAE 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 L
... (truncated)

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