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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4487ef24767e8b9b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

81.2 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 1e0bf331a6b6ee2140e9dccf878488e0 SHA-1: 0ca7774572ea47ae110e889457abbd92b4aecd36 SHA-256: 4487ef24767e8b9b37a202adc8368a15e7515833a937e37bcc20372165a97e0f
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an XLSM document containing Excel 4.0 macros. The macros utilize dangerous functions like CALL and EXEC, indicating an intent to download and execute a second-stage payload from the URL http://wnsx22gdouo03tuyu.xyz/grays.gif. The presence of an Auto_Open macro further suggests automatic execution upon opening the document.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (3 sheet(s)) critical 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.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: FORMULA, CALL, HALT, EXEC critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • 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.microsoft.com/office/excel/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

Extracted artifacts 3

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
7cc29e0426c044da329e809d130552193749e3486fd84097688f127f76120087
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 5778 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.xml
5e0b317bc9eef478a9b391aa848d4ca25c6a2921bbc6af4ad6fc140f76188572
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet2.xml 963 bytes
xlm_sheet_02.xml
98345195494abbd762f0f368955be9eed2dfec729c77fce42164df297eed179f
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 3090 bytes