Office (OOXML) / .XLSM malware analysis — malicious · 972fa5a416057b28

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

224.0 KB Created: 2026-01-27 07:26:24 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2026-02-09

MD5: cb71d716e00e4a549fdcd09ca210da95 SHA-1: 4d237c9cf44fb6a39936f004e934fabac7edd06b SHA-256: 972fa5a416057b28ba0a442f81765a9f775435a789acb9338ae89208d47f0dc7

490 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.003 Windows Command Shell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The Auto_Open VBA macro within the XLSM file is designed to download an executable file from the URL "https://highvalves.com/mlcs/C46_debug.exe". It then saves this executable to a temporary directory, attempting to use filenames like "C46_debug(1).exe" up to "C46_debug(100).exe". Finally, it uses WScript.Shell to execute the downloaded file without showing a window. This indicates a dropper functionality, aiming to fetch and run a secondary payload.

Heuristics 12

Shell() call in VBA critical OLE_VBA_SHELL

Shell() call in VBA
WScript.Shell usage critical OLE_VBA_WSCRIPT

WScript.Shell usage
Obfuscated VBA Shell command with URL critical OLE_VBA_OBFUSCATED_SHELL_URL

VBA macro invokes Shell with command text assembled through decoder or string-manipulation functions and includes a URL. This is a high-confidence downloader/dropper pattern, stronger than Shell or URL evidence on their own.
ClamAV: Doc.Dropper.Agent-6412232-1 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION

ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Dropper.Agent-6412232-1
ClamAV detection on extracted artifact critical EXTRACTED_FILE_CLAMAV

ClamAV flagged at least one file extracted from inside this sample. Even when the wrapping document carries no AV detection of its own, a hit on the carved artifact is a strong indicator the sample is a delivery vehicle.
Auto_Open macro high OLE_VBA_AUTO

Auto_Open macro
CreateObject call high OLE_VBA_CREATEOBJ

CreateObject call
VBA p-code auto-exec with execution tokens high OLE_VBA_PCODE_AUTOEXEC_EXEC

Compiled VBA/cache stream contains an auto-execution token together with shell/download/object-execution tokens. This catches p-code-only or source-extraction-failure macro documents where visible source is unavailable.
Suspicious extracted artifact high EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE

One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
VBA project inside OOXML medium OOXML_VBA

Document contains vbaProject.bin — VBA macros present
Environ() call (env variable access) low OLE_VBA_ENVIRON

Environ() call (env variable access)
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://highvalves.com/mlcs/C46_debug.exe

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`macros.bas` `f1d7836b11fa85018bfe8ee97f63c843300fc9f1f020a56bf24387a60eec96cf`	vba-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source from OOXML)	1450 bytes
Detection ClamAV: No threats found Obfuscation or payload: likely Carved artifact contains 1 shell/COM execution token(s). Carved macro source contains an auto-exec entry point and execution/download terms.
`vbaProject_00.bin` `6f8bb24806c9fb7dea879502b0427cf05073e64675785aad1ece759196d08554`	vba-project	OOXML VBA project: xl/vbaProject.bin	14848 bytes
Detection ClamAV: Doc.Dropper.Agent-6412232-1 Obfuscation or payload: likely Carved artifact contains 1 shell/COM execution token(s). Carved macro source contains an auto-exec entry point and execution/download terms.

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