Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis — malicious · 3eefa9f1e1e38ddd

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

54.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel

MD5: 5dbbd74f89b695d003ba1d1562d2d92c SHA-1: d3fb98b440190fd45e2e97b5ff7d9fb57d802062 SHA-256: 3eefa9f1e1e38dddb63bd3c41ccfa32a618e56150645e4c0c2ebd3fe2a956b9f

300 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The sample contains both Excel 4.0 (XLM) and VBA macros, with the VBA macro utilizing the URLDownloadToFile API to download a file from a hardcoded URL. The XLM macro also contains an Auto_Open entry, indicating potential auto-execution. The presence of a lure to enable macros further supports a malicious intent. The VBA script attempts to download a file from 'http://' & Sheets("Files").Range("B60") to the path specified in Sheets("Files").Range("B56"), likely to execute a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 7

Reference to URLDownloadToFile API critical SC_STR_URLDOWNLOAD

Reference to URLDownloadToFile API
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.
URLDownloadToFile in VBA critical OLE_VBA_DOWNLOAD

URLDownloadToFile in 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.
VBA macros detected medium OLE_VBA_MACROS

Document contains VBA macro code
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

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`xlm_macros.txt` `2a1c7329c4c8792c67abecd81ffa3d95e2243efca26ae8a7b4838634109595bd`	xlm-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing)	5046 bytes
`macros.bas` `aa55a18a3f33259e345c5e53649ac5f2f1d89d5667b734f6c8f841105e5741f2`	vba-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source)	1692 bytes

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