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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 96aecefbaff73f1c…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

138.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 0d827c9386c0d1069ebb7e6e6bcd8a12 SHA-1: 65dffaf4ba296a44df6eee7f3eb468a44eb703c7 SHA-256: 96aecefbaff73f1c7c607a4a268607311eb3aa4296dc7ec0057d7107fe2b541c
160 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 that uses an 'Auto_Open' macro to execute. The macro contains a lure to enable content and uses the dangerous `RUN` function to download and execute a payload from the URL 'http://nvelj12qyyfi03kqxy.xyz/i.'. The presence of the 'Docu Sign' string in the document body and as a sheet name suggests a social engineering pretext for the macro execution.

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.
  • 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.
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
3a08691eed72e5ed205a0b2d682f61d57bf1de10bae67e5c55da30ecdcba1b08
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 4335 bytes