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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 5922a03f4a3bb22b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

44.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 264efa0d219370b1ea597b1cdb0a297b SHA-1: ddb1412c2b27350c4e0d286212cbc3a1929e54db SHA-256: 5922a03f4a3bb22b3c30bacbca9af4a5c8bc827e143bf9ad3cbdb20477ba06d0
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel file containing Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function. This function is designed to execute automatically when the workbook is opened. Heuristics indicate the presence of dangerous formula APIs and environment evasion techniques, suggesting the macro is intended to perform malicious actions. No specific URLs or hashes were extracted, but the Auto_Open macro itself is the primary indicator of malicious intent.

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.
  • XLM Auto_Open environment-evasion HALT gate high OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_HALT
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes multiple GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW environment checks and halts execution when the host does not match the expected user environment. This is a common sandbox-evasion pattern in XLM malware and is stronger than a bare XLM macro-sheet indicator.
  • 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
0e968b8acdee1f94d12ce19c79469cfae7ec7b4f0fa76a3cf87407646551e15e		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 13823 bytes

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