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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 50983e1c74894b8f…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

24.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 26b08dd3dd863a004c8d2359dc7d6ec6 SHA-1: e9d5e5856d5478d6488b72a9b2a3422c4fd8503a SHA-256: 50983e1c74894b8fb4d73f3939bdd5735324bf40b3abe7c4bbb2ea1693f59c47
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, indicated by the OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET heuristic. The OOXML_XLM_BINARY_WINAPI_STRINGS heuristic further reveals the presence of WinAPI functions like URLDownloadToFileA, DownloadToFileA, and ShellExecuteA, along with strings related to executable paths. This suggests the macro's purpose is to download and execute a secondary payload from a remote location. The specific strings found point towards a downloader or droppper functionality.

Heuristics 2

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks. The macro sheet is stored as XLSB/BIFF12 binary content, which many XML-only OOXML scanners miss.
  • Binary XLM macro sheet with WinAPI/download strings critical OOXML_XLM_BINARY_WINAPI_STRINGS
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet is stored as BIFF12/XLSB binary data and contains Win32 download or process-execution API strings such as URLDownloadToFileA, ShellExecuteA, or CreateDirectoryA. These strings are high-signal in XLM macro sheets and catch payload-download macros that XML-formula scanners cannot parse.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.bin
99a6a52acb8f5c734f6d86faf89e0637a94ac99f953aa583d2658b47d2e1f9b9		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.bin 194023 bytes

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