Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9786219c44a820b6…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.5 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:43:29 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-09-16
MD5: a8aae90da889f3f56a481729e521ed87 SHA-1: 1623211599baeb234ad2afb99f8ed3499e91068a SHA-256: 9786219c44a820b63ec037897e414747dea8e61fe09e1cf2f5565308c9424b7d
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet containing an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical finding indicating automatic execution upon opening. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code. While the specific payload is not visible, the technique strongly points to an initial execution vector for malware.

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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6621 bytes
SHA-256: b745bde102f69b5ab189b4e7c51216a9e3abcb5965751045ea02e45e7f408e71
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     18 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  bhWntgzlK
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - adRwKyo len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - aohFFfqWXv len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!D175 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - bAMequ len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - DiKyeuzCxe len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - FZvpnGlul len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - giIcx len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - gjQoZZPQ len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - GXpiCgipNec len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hXUsugHPSwrc len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - iXwiGwUMTbb len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - lUCrBNHqjB len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - NwlfRTCWe len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - OwLsGjwG len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - OYqgV len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - pdbJBE len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - pPUewEtm len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - qYlZqzlgcwy len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - SdcxgP len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - sTqiS len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ytNKw len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 L
... (truncated)

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.