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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 53ab347ad2644e27…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

80.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 82952988f87c14f9164447079f092c76 SHA-1: fcf9a5ab347f01883e467699082947e560819e9a SHA-256: 53ab347ad2644e27bca72205d9dd9dcdba6852c150c5b4211c654f9230e4548e
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File

The sample is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet. It contains an Auto_Open macro, which is a common technique for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The document body impersonates DocuSign, a common lure to trick users into enabling macros. The XLM macros likely download and execute a second-stage payload from one of the embedded URLs.

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.
  • 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
  • Document signing service impersonation lure medium SE_DOCUSIGN_LURE
    Document impersonates DocuSign, Adobe Sign, or a similar signing service in a signing-request context

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
22d3c31a465a6521900f39daf43eabaae00bc8bddcdeb66e5f53b58d567f7430
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 2285 bytes