Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 3e2d186a2dbdc002…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

503.5 KB Created: 2020-06-24 12:13:57 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300
MD5: d070001dba56fe25051283b69950ea45 SHA-1: b5b0c7ab2c642a104c401bea81f9cf3a5b54d225 SHA-256: 3e2d186a2dbdc0025f25346fba68c9fbdf5366f27aa3d997cb02683964feb700
68 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.002 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an XLSM file containing Excel 4.0 macros, which is a strong indicator of malicious intent given their rarity in legitimate documents. The presence of hidden worksheets and a prompt to enable macros further supports this. While no specific script content was provided for analysis, the heuristics indicate a classic macro-based lure designed to bypass security controls and likely download a secondary payload.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 sheet(s)) high OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings
  • Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET
    Excel workbook contains 5 hidden sheet(s) — hidden sheets are commonly used to conceal macro code, staging data, or intermediate payload construction
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
3aa0d4b6291574ca077562d9e1f2a65d1a4bf56c9ae6d47d12a884b6146d7495		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 155840 bytes

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