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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 60297f551e15578a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

274.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 68110157f67ac4a93d96b16050be9b7b SHA-1: 7e036aefe015825809e35ed620965d44ace06f03 SHA-256: 60297f551e15578a9c882a2a332d1cb3a3c40f5fd3a8e2cb6fdf3a0bf3c51f41
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The sample is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet that contains an Auto_Open macro, indicating automatic execution upon opening. It uses a lure to impersonate DocuSign, instructing the user to enable macros. The extracted DOC BODY contains a URL and a potential executable filename, suggesting the macro is designed 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.
  • 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
9c2b87b6fbbf2f001872e545a5be72e1e73825a4f69ea86b845063e70864756e
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 2004 bytes