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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 90a284ae8ac11827…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

66.5 KB Created: 2020-09-21 06:10:31 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 17fd672d74a97b5472d6516e53d3f741 SHA-1: 73a0519f5c9b7226354a44cb0c9dc767e0d9de1d SHA-256: 90a284ae8ac1182749b065bff4633220bd18a6003042d6a2344224ab8a276bbf
60 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet that is encrypted, as indicated by the OLE_XLM_ENCRYPTED_MACROSHEET heuristic. The OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN heuristic suggests that the macro sheet may execute automatically upon opening. Due to the encrypted nature of the macro sheet, the specific malicious actions could not be determined, but the presence of encrypted XLM macros is a strong indicator of malicious intent.

Heuristics 2

  • Encrypted Excel 4.0 macro sheet high OLE_XLM_ENCRYPTED_MACROSHEET
    Workbook contains an Excel 4.0 macro sheet and BIFF FILEPASS encryption. Password-protected XLM macro sheets, especially the default Excel password path, are a common malware evasion pattern because static formula extraction may fail until the workbook is decrypted.
  • 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.