Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4d3055914ce2810f…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:46:45 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-06-28
MD5: 3752b21c950acae3f564b3ede1c3fa84 SHA-1: 284c2da2af183fd79999f627c96afba1d1c99cc0 SHA-256: 4d3055914ce2810fe55e21fe2ae37c64499abfbf5c1eb8cf42c043b3c5a6449a
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The file contains Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical finding. This indicates the macro will execute automatically upon opening the workbook. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary commands, likely to download and run a second-stage payload.

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.
  • 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.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6651 bytes
SHA-256: 4c48dce9ad1c57dfd4a607991663d3d323bb81e8ca75623eca7b2a42cff66655
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     12 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  GQj
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - aDgIMMTu len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!D184 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - AWXGU len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - DLDYGIUEvRq len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - FQJvCnOiKg len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - gbWzo len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - haHjHIbiRb len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - HaPvIJtHCjdV len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - krmcMXPa len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - LIgdOWtKmg len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - PulzPEfooOB len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - sfLVtbwjzVW len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - SGQocArZTnkH len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - TkbFCagxAQe len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - UHbDNcQyiG len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - UVmGoXJN len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - WIyiKLZvF len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - wvIcij len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - xDneQwjVGu len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - YJATa len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - yNAOovdWJA len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
'
... (truncated)

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