Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 8f8414b775ac02a2…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

37.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:46:54 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 533781649515c2656a73afde0e43a077 SHA-1: b9defbce2845ca9758a8e5a2b2c7e52aef439850 SHA-256: 8f8414b775ac02a2b45ab171071c9b0bf5753d13269ccd32fca242d563328857
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical finding indicating automatic execution upon opening. The presence of dangerous formula APIs further suggests malicious intent. This pattern is commonly used to download and execute secondary payloads, making it a likely initial access vector via spearphishing.

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
84a31d1066e00ce22030d0ec692c9ad1c927c8480c9a375cac55884e1641baac		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 7008 bytes

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