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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 6d621aff2dbcb627…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

226.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 08ef5a78797711af0272d3c359542c0f SHA-1: 28c9a4510f85c7ac448d4eff9e4a52ee52b5df6c SHA-256: 6d621aff2dbcb6279bc1144dcd581cf0879a03d94a6b2a73dde2e67ffc0e6a0a
180 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. Heuristics indicate the presence of an Auto_Open macro, which is a common technique for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The document body displays a message prompting the user to "enable Editing and Content", a typical lure for macro-based attacks. The XLM macro sheet contains a dangerous function and an environment evasion halt gate, further indicating 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
c64f6bce0e841dfc54aec15f0ee2b530356cb1a48a77d2761005692542f0230a		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 328139 bytes

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