Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 3b16be6d5ec90cf5…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:44:59 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 2aaaddd6dc4252abe0eb0ef07524f28d SHA-1: 7670ad9015ac7b4912bbfe64ac1e28c116490901 SHA-256: 3b16be6d5ec90cf54334cebf1bb8aa86ee5e82aa97183b5e577be863ce883b0c
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 macro, which is a critical finding indicating potential malicious execution. This macro is designed to run automatically when the workbook is opened, likely to download and execute a secondary payload. The presence of dangerous formula APIs further supports the malicious intent.

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
a0921a56ef48015badd24d0d62b4f2e4a0ed782972e0ef895c08ec938ea4f24c		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6719 bytes

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