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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 45e98100b24f93a3…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

373.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 22865225f5efcdd51c6b3dd26ae02970 SHA-1: 77ae93066f5ac7b0f95b0adb7e90036c9cf9dd3e SHA-256: 45e98100b24f93a32ee0c0f71b74b01d1b82ef46e6ce18cb4859c36b02bb8ea2
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel spreadsheet containing Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open function. This function is known to be used for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The heuristics indicate the use of dangerous formula APIs within the macro, and the presence of embedded URLs suggests a downloader mechanism. The macro likely attempts to download and execute a second-stage payload from one of the provided URLs.

Heuristics 5

  • 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
  • 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://pfamilydentist.com/OgdaW8AjEF/alex.html
    • https://thevoorpret.com/wQSapbrm9WmH/alex.html

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
7eb5e48f136258965c2495a123fc1d7ae2138b901360da5008973ba86cc22008
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 5292 bytes