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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 696bb0e2594ca7ed…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

246.5 KB Created: 2020-09-14 21:28:14 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 32cd59ae3ede30645fa4784165c414e0 SHA-1: 635da0716a149e4cf6c5c838e5b48ff8062220b2 SHA-256: 696bb0e2594ca7eda7482d77d12c56f904ff3d07985c45e6f2e5b7c027b2d1db
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The critical heuristics indicate the presence of Excel 4.0 macros with an Auto_Open defined name, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The macro uses dangerous formula APIs, specifically RUN, to execute code from a hardcoded URL. This suggests the file is designed to download and execute a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 3

  • 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.
  • 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
65bc008e2eabe635d545cb450e760a46092761a39e9ee000edff964325d59996		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 23702 bytes

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