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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 8938f15d93aa97c1…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

430.7 KB Created: 2004-08-16 18:44:14 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 15.0300
MD5: ef421595ca9449f4b464712dbe834471 SHA-1: 4df29d365438d9006de1fa825b38f4a07e97ee4b SHA-256: 8938f15d93aa97c1c62662f27e58ab61192d6f6eac62b36c5d9dc1fa49c2101a
272 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1140 Deobfuscate or Decode Files or Information T1071.001 Web Protocols T1204.002 Malicious File

The XLSM file contains an obfuscated VBA macro that executes upon opening the workbook. This macro reconstructs and executes a URL, likely to download and run a secondary payload. The presence of a Workbook_Open macro and CreateObject calls strongly suggests malicious intent, aiming to trick the user into executing arbitrary code.

Heuristics 10

  • Obfuscated auto-exec VBA loader critical OLE_VBA_OBFUSCATED_AUTOEXEC_LOADER
    Auto-exec VBA reconstructs strings with a heavy custom decoder (numeric char-array, repeated hex-string decode, or junk-token Replace removal) and feeds them to a COM-instantiation or execution sink. This obfuscated-loader shape keeps CreateObject/Shell/URL indicators out of the macro source.
  • NOP sled detected high SC_NOP_SLED
    Found 20+ consecutive 0x90 bytes
  • Workbook_Open macro high OLE_VBA_WBOPEN
    Workbook_Open macro
  • CreateObject call high OLE_VBA_CREATEOBJ
    CreateObject call
  • VBA p-code auto-exec with execution tokens high OLE_VBA_PCODE_AUTOEXEC_EXEC
    Compiled VBA/cache stream contains an auto-execution token together with shell/download/object-execution tokens. This catches p-code-only or source-extraction-failure macro documents where visible source is unavailable.
  • VBA project inside OOXML medium OOXML_VBA
    Document contains a VBA project — VBA macros present
  • Callback phishing phone lure medium SE_CALLBACK_LURE
    Document asks the user to call a phone number in billing, refund, subscription, fraud, or security context — consistent with callback phishing or tech-support scam patterns. Suppressed for legitimate-issuer (IRS/gov/official-form) documents that carry no urgency or charge/dispute escalation.
  • External hyperlinks (1) low OOXML_EXTERNAL_HYPERLINKS
    Document contains 1 external hyperlink — clickable URLs are stored as external relationships. First target: https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/quote-template.html
  • Suspicious extracted artifact info EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE
    One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
  • 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://www.purequestair.co.za/
    • https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/quote-template.html
    • https://www.vertex42.com/licensing/EULA_privateuse.html
    • https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelArticles/invoicing.html

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas
50505fa2499343825aa05bd8da831270ae3e66622e2cf400e80c52327772d433		 vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source from OOXML) 5539 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 long base64-like blob(s).
vbaProject_00.bin
7af427784a181997dc032b7234fc0087e2ebd5b8cc04f7bd037f083fb1bfa437		 vba-project OOXML VBA project: xl/vbaProject.bin 25600 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 long base64-like blob(s).

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.