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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 42e716812ade03ef…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

31.0 KB Created: 2021-01-28 12:55:57 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: b41f6158dd227c3c8535f16951d7f20c SHA-1: c8e5efbd0c25a9114642715f5a51e9de1061c422 SHA-256: 42e716812ade03ef127299db9040bd573e34a3c5ba745ec3c94f48765b8037b0
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 User Execution: Malicious File T1059.005 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel file containing Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro. The document body contains a lure instructing the user to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content' to view the content. The presence of the Auto_Open macro and the lure strongly indicate a malicious intent to execute arbitrary code upon opening. No specific IOCs like URLs or hashes were extracted from the macro itself.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • 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 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
e16adc35f4fa41d5e2f17438cb5633874e736f78f33d9bfaa519bc6d64354fc8		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 3288 bytes

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