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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4d4ce79c3f151594…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

52.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: cc47fc8c7159367a5b3a80bdf260b354 SHA-1: 1466bb84772f58a3bc9b8dd6f8c96e207870900b SHA-256: 4d4ce79c3f151594df322c021be2c746e7504314c1c1a68b207d6ef9d3e5c29b
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a critical finding. The macro uses the `REGISTER` function with a URL constructed from concatenated strings, indicating it's designed to download a second-stage payload. The presence of a 'Macro/content-enable lure' heuristic further supports that the document is intended to deceive the user into enabling macros to execute the malicious payload from the URL http://parosdiving.com/catsdeal/color.php.

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.
  • 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.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
a86dec99e2013db52fcb6c6382b9017e3956457f0a39ff5efd1f9ebf10b6deee
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 2321 bytes