Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 3cef448639544072…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:42:51 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 54d6490f6f04e9d4ad22741ef9b378eb SHA-1: 55d48dbc53aa999e4d4b2ef960b7e7603af9e26f SHA-256: 3cef44863954407233f81839f4968c6c32df17040dfdc7c405c019f0efe5a065
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled workbook. Critical heuristics indicate the presence of an Auto_Open macro and the use of dangerous formula APIs, specifically the RUN function. This strongly suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code, likely a downloader for 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
35272a73a3ce7db3023bad78e01f91d3aafda73c26c330447de79f5c6744c059		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6577 bytes

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