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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 698eb72281b5e9db…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

373.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 8d1e50141117c2c422d2645bdebaba25 SHA-1: e0dc100add2b0a0569fa17a625c53f8de9a9fa41 SHA-256: 698eb72281b5e9db26c8a413eca26bd8fd6032661ea048214bcbdf22d0464c0c
162 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet. It contains an Auto_Open macro that uses dangerous formula APIs, including 'RUN', which is highly indicative of malicious intent. The document body and extracted URLs suggest the macro is designed to download and execute a second-stage payload from the provided URLs. The presence of the 'SE_ENABLE_LURE' heuristic further supports that the document attempts to trick the user into enabling macros.

Heuristics 5

  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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://pfamilydentist.com/OgdaW8AjEF/alex.html
    • https://thevoorpret.com/wQSapbrm9WmH/alex.html

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
7eb5e48f136258965c2495a123fc1d7ae2138b901360da5008973ba86cc22008
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 5292 bytes