Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9000804bf3d425fa…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

86.8 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 361d6cb16501aed0d1f5d5e1fa5f5484 SHA-1: 1df652a66f5a033c4067d10e819ee67ef176c0bf SHA-256: 9000804bf3d425faab8a1f76cb663a1dd2e79da53ccd0efc90431a1e49c72e8c
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Service Control T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious File T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell

The file is an XLSM document containing Excel 4.0 macros. Critical heuristics indicate the use of dangerous XLM functions like WORKBOOK.HIDE, EXEC, and CALL, which are commonly used to download and execute payloads. The embedded document body text also contains URLs that are likely part of the malicious payload delivery chain. The macros likely download and execute a second-stage payload from one of the provided URLs.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (2 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: WORKBOOK.HIDE, EXEC, CALL, HALT, FORMULA critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • 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://hannahchinedu.com/dQSUQzeUwN/04.html
    • https://abpnco.com/nayWPlQM/04.html
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac

Extracted artifacts 3

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
emf_00.emf
442eb38c1c88060cf62c1fd88f48f9b8961edd687fe9250cf42ff79baf20ccae		 ooxml-emf OOXML EMF part: xl/media/image1.emf 296536 bytes
xlm_sheet_00.xml
e2d0c69c580969a640d565ee7f4c9f99c84cac5b5d64c997ece3e584778305c8		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 1638 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.xml
bc0107a78ea6ba702702ddf8b745f24672051acbfa84cd527ab65f9785d5a729		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.xml 3777 bytes

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