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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 71683182bbc9884b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

24.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: fb5d37312521457019de78d2f8616229 SHA-1: 83d04330be6672e343c8b6b90e1750b50cb44bbd SHA-256: 71683182bbc9884bb78c66382c4ed5c2e8c528446f0561530b07fae7bdca2ece
124 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer T1204.002 Malicious File

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, identified by critical heuristics indicating WinAPI and download strings. These macros likely leverage functions like URLDownloadToFileA and ShellExecuteA to download and execute a payload from the embedded URL, https://mindsup.in/ds/29.gif. This indicates a downloader or droppper functionality.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 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. The macro sheet is stored as XLSB/BIFF12 binary content, which many XML-only OOXML scanners miss.
  • Binary XLM macro sheet with WinAPI/download strings critical OOXML_XLM_BINARY_WINAPI_STRINGS
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet is stored as BIFF12/XLSB binary data and contains Win32 download or process-execution API strings such as URLDownloadToFileA, ShellExecuteA, or CreateDirectoryA. These strings are high-signal in XLM macro sheets and catch payload-download macros that XML-formula scanners cannot parse.
  • XLM payload URL string (1 URL) info OOXML_XLM_PAYLOAD_URL
    An Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-sheet workbook with download/execute evidence carries a literal http(s) URL stored as a (often UTF-16) string in the shared-string table or a cell. This is the next-stage payload host referenced by the macro download chain (URLDownloadToFile/ShellExecute); surfaced as an IOC.
  • 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://mindsup.in/ds/29.gif

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.bin
99a6a52acb8f5c734f6d86faf89e0637a94ac99f953aa583d2658b47d2e1f9b9		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.bin 194023 bytes

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