Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis — malicious · 4ba2939a879e3a20

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

64.5 KB Created: 2022-01-17 17:40:35 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel

MD5: ab60e168a159760966f8e43db5d9792f SHA-1: 15fbf0cdcab210ae6be6bd523de49e0114bf3d00 SHA-256: 4ba2939a879e3a204cc69b12842c7a3c304928d91a9a52c471fb180b853a40c9

100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious Macro T1059.003 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet (XLM) that uses an Auto_Open defined name to execute a command. The document body contains a lure to enable editing and content, which is a common tactic for macro-based malware. The extracted macro script reveals a command that reconstructs to 'cmd /c mshta http://0xc12a24f5/cc.html', indicating that it downloads and executes a second-stage payload from the specified URL using mshta.exe.

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.
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

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`xlm_macros.txt` `0807f652a36752efcd354ce3c536f2fe7ed4cd53a3ff1787c33acb378dda90a0`	xlm-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing)	1073 bytes

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