Malicious Office (OLE) / .XLS — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 3f97ea67ea560c85…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

157.5 KB Created: 2020-11-28 13:42:19 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 3202c4586c4991c9f5312238f7577d8e SHA-1: 10291ff94dbce8eda7aa9ede69bf984a084b8b9e SHA-256: 3f97ea67ea560c851c589e4b7161f60ece5c390a9e194818b30987b212434c06
60 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File

The file contains an Excel 4.0 macro (XLM) with an Auto_Open function that utilizes dangerous API calls, specifically the RUN function. This indicates the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code. While the extracted URLs were marked as benign, the presence of the XLM macro and its dangerous functions strongly suggests a malicious intent to download and execute a second-stage payload. The macro sheet BOF marker further confirms the presence of executable macro content.

Heuristics 3

  • XLM Auto_Open with dangerous formula APIs high 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.
  • 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 https://rebrand.ly/g8zrqvw�
    • https://rebrand.ly/g8zrqvw

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
7c2678d75e0ddfde7f2edbeeb8ea56469f7eac43f1a6c8790b68fbbe7e1076e4
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1263 bytes