Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 8b11b0fd88c6bf8f…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:44:33 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: d5b5840d5561a45298c71b6c2158ee7a SHA-1: 8e8cd242b071d4fde4f52bd3d49a9b53dcba37cc SHA-256: 8b11b0fd88c6bf8f29a9ad8a86944016b807a70b856cb749bf5538bb8c915889
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The sample is an Excel file containing Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open entry. This indicates an attempt to automatically execute code when the workbook is opened. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro is intended to download and execute a second-stage payload, a common technique for initial execution.

Heuristics 3

  • 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.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
0d97bbbb5333b0daaa5b9481bce8110371b726c6d67840f05889bf8ce6d3d1d6		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6570 bytes

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