Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 6fc69f553c079f20…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

248.0 KB Created: 2020-08-05 10:04:31 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2020-09-07
MD5: 91077613e9979e5a83f3af3af597011f SHA-1: 00288466559816453d5b311bfdfa0aa8575d5c68 SHA-256: 6fc69f553c079f20ec20e3e95eb342658dbeef6349acbe50578c550deb3d16b6
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The sample is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled workbook. It contains an Auto_Open macro that attempts to evade environment checks and uses dangerous API functions. The document body prompts the user to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content', indicating a social engineering lure to execute the macro. The XLM macro is likely 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.
  • 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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 261149 bytes
SHA-256: 83952de2cb011c24d6ccb868b22c9ba4714393deb871c28417352f13fb91a563
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     19 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  xMasohjmRf
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - AGsdoNqexpZT len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open hidden len=7 ptgNameX  NAMEIDX 16 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - DBPIpiP len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - GDbgfVeDge len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - JYdaw len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - loDSKc len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - MNRrt len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - mtzjXtMVNRwd len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - oCrjhpjR len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - rXUYrYSudm len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - RYDCnn len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - scKMAGoZWP len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - trFfXR len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - TvQPhMDOlrr len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - viwXr len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -       hidden len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!HF3188 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ZVKPB len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST :
... (truncated)