Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 3c98cf8a2563e8a6…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.5 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:43:25 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: ce59220d5c55015fd80602f7b86a1029 SHA-1: 6d4318d30aba8668171e45b8084806aacff43a7f SHA-256: 3c98cf8a2563e8a6b875506f24b5017d4c23e275a56cef9ad892fc25de633a69
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 function, which is a known method for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN indicates an intent to execute arbitrary commands, likely to download and run a secondary payload. The macro sheet itself is the primary indicator of malicious activity.

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
f749a2ba87d37fe4718f79dc553b76f3420d63287ac5317cc20b4514e970d10b		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6668 bytes

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.