Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 60f5bb592b759093…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

86.8 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 2d3bb70bd587af40886e80274dbd3623 SHA-1: a0d8579da129280af8aaa5a59f2db109aa8fa080 SHA-256: 60f5bb592b759093a043e4f49b59c8dabea303a7a44f4bb26b87e9ec557c5645
182 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, indicated by the OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET and OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME heuristics. The macros utilize dangerous functions like EXEC and CALL, which are used to construct and execute commands. Specifically, the EXEC function appears to concatenate strings from various cells to form a command, likely a URL to download a payload. The presence of embedded URLs further supports this. The use of these functions suggests an attempt to download and execute a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (2 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: WORKBOOK.HIDE, EXEC, CALL, HALT, FORMULA critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL https://thersnyc.com/fxcS6exSJr0/04.html
    • https://justverify.online/ZKrubZZn5V/04.html
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac

Extracted artifacts 3

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
emf_00.emf
442eb38c1c88060cf62c1fd88f48f9b8961edd687fe9250cf42ff79baf20ccae
ooxml-emf OOXML EMF part: xl/media/image1.emf 296536 bytes
xlm_sheet_00.xml
e2d0c69c580969a640d565ee7f4c9f99c84cac5b5d64c997ece3e584778305c8
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 1638 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.xml
8877d538d505af08b0c326ee597bc05eb27a221881758da594814f19457722a4
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.xml 3709 bytes