Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 43ac46819495e707…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.5 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:38:19 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2026-06-05
MD5: c9d3ca2caf665096e5597a132a92171c SHA-1: 9e93202ea8cf41b5f679d3a5a2c2ce63b066de2c SHA-256: 43ac46819495e7079e60eae801f7c9cd0c2ea37c2f18f22e925c9d414ccc45cc
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The critical heuristics indicate the presence of Excel 4.0 macros with an Auto_Open defined name, which is a known method for executing malicious code. The macro sheet contains a reference to 'Auto_Open', suggesting it will run automatically upon opening the document. This is a common technique for downloading and executing further stages of malware.

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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6678 bytes
SHA-256: 59edad45b0384ced1b61119be27fe37aa009cb84edca76a0982ddb1be94e7fe6
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     16 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  VoLoctx
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - AbhQm len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!B175 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - CDTKvWHO len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ckKIM len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - CQoEoBXibgLp len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - DhKwDgvKgjS len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - gPRYS len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - gQyEW len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - HJyVngIwk len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hyIazQB len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - iZkqfgtmCvj len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - KiNVundjFPpw len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - LDzsu len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - pHTvQB len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - QysIoeVEQmiq len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - tcINCIMlOh len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - WKnQvSB len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - YBrPaW len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - YkgEshttLJ len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ZbgAIiBJ len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - zlzZM len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELS
... (truncated)

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