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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 8d81e63f109dcc36…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

373.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 5c50d4ee3f5f5299b928c89e4665cd17 SHA-1: f60e94cf6b6eeb2ec1644e771a0a23456fc9492d SHA-256: 8d81e63f109dcc36090c7929001e9c2879d95ec387a8d2b0d16ee3ac51b44e0e
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File

The file is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet. Heuristics indicate the presence of an Auto_Open macro that uses dangerous function APIs, specifically the RUN function, suggesting it's designed to execute arbitrary code. The document body contains text that appears to be obfuscated or corrupted, but the presence of URLs and the 'Macro/content-enable lure' heuristic strongly suggest the intent is to download and execute a second-stage payload. The XLM macros are likely responsible for this download and execution process.

Heuristics 5

  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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://techserve4u.com/utlqwePl9XKr/alex.html
    • https://evershinesoftware.com/isei5Q7KlsQ5/alex.html

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
599707db4356dee9b1659b3a18ea6968bd26a6e750ede458308d788c900c5e21		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 5292 bytes

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