Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis — malicious · 84f1237656d4ce2d

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

54.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel

MD5: 037859244c296f20b4a9209f9cb2cbea SHA-1: 9a8f158e5beab3802b31be0d4e063459d1688ef3 SHA-256: 84f1237656d4ce2d7e895b5dc1fc139362ff9d621c3ae043004893ed44a3b68d

300 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell T1059.003 Windows Command Shell T1059.004 Unix Shell

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros and VBA code that utilize the URLDownloadToFile API to download a file from a remote URL. The VBA macro reconstructs the URL as 'http://' concatenated with content from Sheets("Files").Range("B60"), and saves it to a path specified by Sheets("Files").Range("B56"). The presence of an Auto_Open macro in the XLM sheet and the 'SE_ENABLE_LURE' heuristic indicate a deliberate attempt to trick the user into enabling macros to initiate the download of a second-stage payload. The DOC BODY text, while fragmented, suggests a lure related to documents or files.

Heuristics 7

Reference to URLDownloadToFile API critical SC_STR_URLDOWNLOAD

Reference to URLDownloadToFile API
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.
URLDownloadToFile in VBA critical OLE_VBA_DOWNLOAD

URLDownloadToFile in 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.
VBA macros detected medium OLE_VBA_MACROS

Document contains VBA macro code
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

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`xlm_macros.txt` `2a1c7329c4c8792c67abecd81ffa3d95e2243efca26ae8a7b4838634109595bd`	xlm-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing)	5046 bytes
`macros.bas` `aa55a18a3f33259e345c5e53649ac5f2f1d89d5667b734f6c8f841105e5741f2`	vba-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source)	1692 bytes

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