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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 80e9a83230a47a3e…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

3.40 MB Created: 2010-04-22 03:31:08 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 98ebbc9af03da5f73f5e0bab64e4755d SHA-1: f6449384cfa037d6fcdaa4982f360916ba3b51d1 SHA-256: 80e9a83230a47a3ef9b17cc46a367d22e56e2059243a42c63b82fef6772ca282
240 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.001 PowerShell T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The sample is an Excel 4.0 spreadsheet containing an Auto_Open macro, indicated by multiple critical heuristic firings including OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN and OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN. The macro sheet contains a reference to the RUN API, which is a dangerous function that can be used to execute arbitrary code. The presence of legacy macro virus markers suggests a history of malicious use. The document body contains what appears to be a list of names, possibly a lure, but no direct indicators of the payload. The macro execution is the primary threat vector.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 (XLM) Auto_Open + macro sheet critical OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN
    Workbook contains an Auto_Open / Auto_Close defined name together with an Excel 4.0 macro sheet — the canonical XLM auto-execution shape used by malware families such as Emotet and QakBot.
  • 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.
  • Legacy XLM macro-virus family marker critical OLE_XLM_LEGACY_MACRO_VIRUS
    Workbook contains an Excel 4.0 macro Auto_Open chain and legacy macro-virus family strings. This is a narrow indicator for infected XLM workbooks rather than ordinary formula use.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
f8c61a2ae4c5c3cd4953b4348f2b0f0f10e2ac9aba2841e7c648f8666fec3251		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1722327 bytes

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