Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 516f18cd9c3ee0e0…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:24:33 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 3db2320046b9bc7d7c9c635e9a5e6716 SHA-1: 7e78260f96d23bdd9825c8799487fbf4ece5583b SHA-256: 516f18cd9c3ee0e0844bf287ea3af34d87ef01cbf966d27ad2d5ec0cd0748008
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 document containing an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical heuristic firing. This indicates the macro will execute automatically when the document is opened. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code, likely to download and run a second-stage payload. No specific family could be identified.

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
c8178f65b45a2e8ea74274062434415c4f6c81325cd1591bcf9665735c94eb08		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6627 bytes

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