Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4fb9604330d3f0a0…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.5 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:40:53 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 1e8a0367e5ac93c66afb3b06c54af77e SHA-1: 2cdbb267642ecdf987d0ba6fe700916c882d7f85 SHA-256: 4fb9604330d3f0a06110de482f0c594b353d0c0c0c770676beeaa0a96e2bbe43
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

This Excel file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening the workbook. The critical heuristic firings indicate the presence of dangerous formula APIs within the Auto_Open macro, suggesting it's designed to run arbitrary commands or download further payloads. The macro sheet itself is heavily obfuscated, making it difficult to determine the exact payload or destination.

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
bf1c23656215006050d818469ded6f11bc58b9d9e9d947aa44bb6b9969459140
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6718 bytes