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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 96b09697da80c2c1…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

373.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 6e8bdf2d7da5f32a9883d5e244b58fbe SHA-1: 1f11db0e7779d313eb3418cf22b72bcc755ad8ac SHA-256: 96b09697da80c2c1a1dabfeb6d9259e1dc8755a4c9c8df471be3df3833e38ce9
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel spreadsheet containing Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro that utilizes dangerous functions like RUN. This macro is designed to bypass security measures by luring the user to enable content. The extracted URLs are likely used to download and execute a second-stage payload, as suggested by the presence of functions like 'URLDownloadToFileA' and 'DllRegisterServer' within the macro code.

Heuristics 5

  • 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
  • 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://allproac.com/u8AwHMG0OM/alex.html
    • https://karnafulimarine.com/lmjhxNSMbf/alex.html

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
7b20680a5c8f61ed44dce4de0580631b9188f0dd2fb85ee91819a05bfb80a422
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 5292 bytes