Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 974a951fb86a0dbc…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:43:08 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 9f56f1100288ac7c1873dd170328ca83 SHA-1: 1978ccf88b6295ab162364dee91cdb550b8b7c83 SHA-256: 974a951fb86a0dbc81181bb003a3bc7ff405c70eacefc67a9da9868b1b6b494c
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The presence of dangerous formula APIs within the macro sheet indicates a high likelihood of malicious intent. While no specific URLs or further payloads were extracted, the Auto_Open macro itself is sufficient to trigger execution.

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.
  • 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.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
5e49f3e5003e1cbb62eff6d86db1fab1ddf47db3783e6c513f7e7d23c5538e89		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6811 bytes

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