Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 8eece46892ee4967…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

262.0 KB Created: 2020-07-29 08:45:29 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2020-09-07
MD5: 7a0412fa1e5b4b838a28254fbaf0d84c SHA-1: 1875833296dfb5ecb884f08e66bbc9d4a01b1452 SHA-256: 8eece46892ee49678fa735029cd329f70d2b2ac63be4522b2c51cbc3bda623d1
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled workbook. The embedded XLM macro sheet contains an Auto_Open function that uses dangerous API calls and includes environment evasion checks. The document body attempts to socially engineer the user into enabling macros by claiming compatibility issues with older Excel versions. The macro itself is truncated, but the presence of Auto_Open and the dangerous function calls suggest it is designed to execute a malicious payload.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • XLM Auto_Open environment-evasion HALT gate high OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_HALT
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes multiple GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW environment checks and halts execution when the host does not match the expected user environment. This is a common sandbox-evasion pattern in XLM malware and is stronger than a bare XLM macro-sheet indicator.
  • 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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 268970 bytes
SHA-256: 93fc85590f95e63976cb3cc8afd391461103312bd965d90c45ea9a27f554dfc4
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     19 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  q5969pAnvX
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open hidden len=7 ptgNameX  NAMEIDX 6 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - dNJkyAYcHNW len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - eIkdfJO len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - FBfDUGQJgrw len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - gClfjqerog len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -       hidden len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!EQ2820 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - jknEewyRgLRV len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - lXhbmBf len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - nihLUz len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - pEGTrDKelTTO len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - qGPpia len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - QMCEkAalU len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - rllgEgZ len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - RSDwtLbj len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - rWAzxxo len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - tAhBr len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - VRNcrBU len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABE
... (truncated)