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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 5863acd8dfcb2256…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

94.0 KB Created: 2005-04-17 01:28:25 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 83ffdfd7455f043d5714dfe63bd53bf6 SHA-1: f42b24512832182df7a262e4526ffcd8cf8d767a SHA-256: 5863acd8dfcb225607e32ee72296a345cec911758c0b050617344b3be4e801db
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet. Critical heuristics indicate the presence of an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The heuristic 'OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN' specifically flags the use of risky functions like RUN, suggesting the macro is designed to execute external commands. The presence of 'XL4Poppy' in the document body and as a sheet name further suggests a connection to known macro-based malware. The macro's intent is to download and execute a second-stage payload.

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.
  • Legacy Excel formula macro virus marker critical OLE_XLS_FORMULA_MACRO_VIRUS
    Workbook stream contains self-identifying legacy Excel formula macro virus markers. This indicates the document carries formula macro virus content even when no VBA project or modern XLM macro-sheet structure is present.
  • 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
59112289ae326c11a47f2940e1d166b64b20b50c51aa000a44fdc22e2b32a79f		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 45680 bytes

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