Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9150879034261251…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:38:32 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-06-20
MD5: f054c9511defff6961f8e07f23829712 SHA-1: 467e4d6229c2b9927563735024bd5b90156b95a6 SHA-256: 9150879034261251a4cdb64a9430697259bfe5f218dd11e4c402555c77e101ef
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet containing an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening the workbook. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN indicates the macro is designed to execute arbitrary commands. While the specific payload is not visible, the Auto_Open macro is the primary mechanism for initial execution and likely serves to download and run a second-stage payload.

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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6393 bytes
SHA-256: 6aeb1fda1630023d5e227729468c2ba050bfdc8a478437afb82cfb11502ecf90
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     12 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  jNG
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - aglXjwA len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - aSdTteyxvxp len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!I176 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - BWDzfuz len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - dOmGw len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ewsGzb len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - FtSqIok len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hMihqdGVrWGS len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - itIJII len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - kyKTsu len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - LgjNcx len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - lUchPSYb len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - mvZYV len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - NvGesoh len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - NyKvTgOrgf len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - RdAYh len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - rzUVwST len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - tZGXQhYwqD len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - vbuBowArDjSn len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - XcFeXksmRPti len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - zagFyMMZMD 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 :
... (truncated)

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