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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 52ede02305675f56…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

31.0 KB Created: 2021-01-25 15:43:25 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: c6254ed5b6b496ae87e2502bb6890c69 SHA-1: 6120b9dbeb0c8a8807c4b28c3fe6953016eefb9c SHA-256: 52ede02305675f567da6c822eb373f251a3a5a9279d391c88d61a7a883dd0e9d
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.001 PowerShell

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet. It contains an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The document body explicitly instructs the user to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content', indicating a social engineering lure to bypass security measures. The presence of an Auto_Open macro and the explicit user instruction to enable content strongly suggest the intent is to execute arbitrary code.

Heuristics 4

  • 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

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
963fdd8aaf11ccc23bef663f80acd57ad0243422e9e3ddfc2b456617d13c8b26
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 3569 bytes