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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 74229fe7ac16e34a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

373.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: f6a1035a855cfb73282647471924fdfd SHA-1: cb15557f9855ff1bc836cf795958de76778eaf0d SHA-256: 74229fe7ac16e34a9b1a5f88e2cf9c88e272f90513de1275c8e84e285a9651df
162 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The sample is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet that contains an Auto_Open macro, indicating it will execute automatically upon opening. The presence of a 'Macro/content-enable lure' heuristic suggests the document prompts the user to enable macros. The XLM macro uses dangerous formula APIs, including RUN, which is often used to execute downloaded payloads. The embedded URLs likely point to these secondary payloads.

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://techserve4u.com/utlqwePl9XKr/alex.html
    • https://evershinesoftware.com/isei5Q7KlsQ5/alex.html

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
599707db4356dee9b1659b3a18ea6968bd26a6e750ede458308d788c900c5e21		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 5292 bytes

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