Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 516516afb910c545…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.5 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:44:59 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 54edd1013b2a2fe0c7dbdd818b076ec5 SHA-1: ed07297b1758e181b1c31e247787cfea583fdfd3 SHA-256: 516516afb910c5450d439ebae6ce105f6099034397c653c12c6624591568dd16
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled workbook containing an Auto_Open defined name, which is a common technique for executing malicious code automatically. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN indicates an intent to execute arbitrary commands or download further payloads. While no specific URLs or hashes were extracted, the Auto_Open macro itself is the primary indicator of malicious activity.

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
3e0798d9b7bbd54ff7e90afbb04a87f7d9d192ce3ca15ccc70bda747c7fa000a
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6559 bytes