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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4b0a30b60bae1b1d…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

54.5 KB Created: 2020-10-26 09:26:03 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 02bcf03a3b8aa07446f5a7311f9cfbb8 SHA-1: f044f08e2ea1cc0ecf9876037e8710aaddf21846 SHA-256: 4b0a30b60bae1b1d61876ff63cd1241abbd50d6784d3a511f8cf120b29d2120a
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The heuristics indicate the presence of dangerous formula APIs and environment evasion, suggesting the macro is designed to run arbitrary commands. The document body contains obfuscated text, likely to hide the macro's true purpose. No specific IOCs like URLs or hashes were extracted, but the presence of the Auto_Open macro is a strong indicator of malicious intent.

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.
  • XLM Auto_Open environment-evasion HALT gate high OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_HALT
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes multiple GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW environment checks and halts execution when the host does not match the expected user environment. This is a common sandbox-evasion pattern in XLM malware and is stronger than a bare XLM macro-sheet indicator.
  • 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
f81de4c554d551a03a51fc986cd5164dace8cc4e0321576177b10d367bddf588		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 16515 bytes

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