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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 44b84df1e8248065…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

62.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: a3c7f9c369dcf4112210fdd85707b099 SHA-1: db2ccb50944b2c635d0ac0ef25edf76b04db1577 SHA-256: 44b84df1e82480653ced365a8c41f3dcf5af4ddb33adc644cd144136a23d15e0
240 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.004 PowerShell T1204 User Execution T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter

The file is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet with VBA macros, detected by the OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN and OLE_VBA_MACROS heuristics. The Workbook_Open macro and XLM Auto_Open with dangerous functions (RUN) suggest an attempt to execute code upon opening. The SE_ENABLE_LURE heuristic indicates the document likely prompts the user to enable macros. The embedded URL http://tak-tik.site/crun20.gif is likely used to download a second-stage payload, as suggested by the SC_STR_URLDOWNLOAD heuristic.

Heuristics 8

  • Reference to URLDownloadToFile API critical SC_STR_URLDOWNLOAD
    Reference to URLDownloadToFile API
  • Reference to ShellExecute API high SC_STR_SHELLEXEC
    Reference to ShellExecute API
  • 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.
  • Workbook_Open macro high OLE_VBA_WBOPEN
    Workbook_Open macro
  • 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
  • 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://tak-tik.site/crun20.gif�
    • http://tak-tik.site/crun20.gif

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
d4222e1ad83b892546402a65bce1342319760d5f0e17d0c73ae5f07e792beb86
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 9447 bytes
macros.bas
c29faf2da8b6b84c63880f8f3ff09f138acdaa94ad9406cab75b546ae0e54428
vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source) 979 bytes