Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 3cecf9d861f242c8…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.5 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:42:19 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 148e96f014e45a0a6717672317a65da8 SHA-1: e61781b060b08b39703b37422e20b80d1c42e9a3 SHA-256: 3cecf9d861f242c85012bea1bc9997d1ad10d981b47d72ee80383179ed795641
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an Excel file containing Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros. The presence of an 'Auto_Open' defined name indicates that these macros are configured to run automatically when the workbook is opened. This is a common technique for executing malicious code, often used to download and run a second-stage payload. No specific family could be identified.

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
4f9725faed8ac015ed7c5feef5d41eb27d15ffe2aa7e0ef0842daa280da91739		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6711 bytes

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