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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 936b5a6fc8f31cf4…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

603.5 KB Created: 2020-07-16 12:39:32 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: aac76fdba5756b671d1b1b8ce3a0e1c5 SHA-1: 0f14d0efaecd89d387e3ce591cdc086ea28a57cd SHA-256: 936b5a6fc8f31cf4b5e910388cf3612d5058b3d662a56216e3574bcc140392e3
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet. Heuristics indicate the presence of an Auto_Open macro that utilizes dangerous functions, specifically the RUN function. The macro sheet contains a concatenated string that, when reconstructed, forms a URL. This URL is likely used to download and execute a second-stage payload, as indicated by the ClamAV detection name 'Xls.Dropper.Agent'.

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.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Dropper.Agent-8896396-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Dropper.Agent-8896396-0
  • 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
ea0e3b89a6a6987bc607119d9e592f09cd25cdc763b575cd03fd800c093fbead
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 22114 bytes