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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4ec9302ee773971a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

373.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 0181a0f26d59837d60455e1f4c7ca406 SHA-1: 437059351b075d8dabedc469e0cacabb8a3d56e1 SHA-256: 4ec9302ee773971a0844d52dae2b37c20678bf12041063763e8be6ead7d99b9a
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an Excel 4.0 spreadsheet containing an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening. The heuristics indicate the use of dangerous formula APIs and a lure to enable macros. The embedded URLs are likely used to download and execute a second-stage payload. The macro's intent is to download and execute a payload, but the specific functionality is not fully discernible due to the nature of XLM macros.

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://allproac.com/u8AwHMG0OM/alex.html
    • https://karnafulimarine.com/lmjhxNSMbf/alex.html

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
7b20680a5c8f61ed44dce4de0580631b9188f0dd2fb85ee91819a05bfb80a422
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 5292 bytes