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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 8daf80a153941f52…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

373.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 19494d9bffc62899f6ef7ce3771c6885 SHA-1: 4a6403a66ee31a3e74af4afc12ce8bb272bf8a0c SHA-256: 8daf80a153941f52240ea529d1a10090a6939aed0aabaa8c14c05bdc98c3e703
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro that utilizes dangerous API functions like RUN. The document also contains an embedded lure instructing the user to enable macros. The extracted URLs are likely used to download and execute a second-stage payload. The presence of XLM macros and the lure indicate a downloader or droppper functionality.

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://allproac.com/u8AwHMG0OM/alex.html
    • https://karnafulimarine.com/lmjhxNSMbf/alex.html

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
7b20680a5c8f61ed44dce4de0580631b9188f0dd2fb85ee91819a05bfb80a422
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 5292 bytes