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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 7868001c2d77d171…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

24.5 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 74f830940225f5790ceacc5da79e7a88 SHA-1: 4ca09a08c4f50612d9bd7d0a7ded2e874d2239ae SHA-256: 7868001c2d77d1710ad3139a048262d3e73545fdf7a25172dc1c4976c541e7dc
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, a critical finding indicating potential malicious activity. These macros leverage WinAPI functions such as URLDownloadToFileA and ShellExecuteA, strongly suggesting an intent to download and execute a second-stage payload from the embedded URL, https://craftsmadebyfaith.com/ds/29.gif. The presence of these functions and the URL points to a downloader or droppper malware.

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://craftsmadebyfaith.com/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