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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9a6d2716f7f4d5db…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

196.5 KB Created: 2008-08-01 04:45:02 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 6f09dd7babacd6bf25916a02f385fdd5 SHA-1: b8c70a8094b0bff8aa19a61b2262c0968f3ed07a SHA-256: 9a6d2716f7f4d5db13860bc62f714dc84f073659a43cd0aeff7b101fbcc8aced
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1059.001 PowerShell T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The sample contains critical heuristic firings indicating the presence of Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name. The macro sheet is identified as 'XL4Poppy' and contains references to 'Classic.Poppy by VicodinES' and 'The Narkotic Network 1998', suggesting a known legacy macro virus. The document body, while appearing as a contract, contains embedded comments related to 'Auto and On Sheet Starts Here' and 'Simple Payload', further supporting the malicious intent of the XLM macros. The macros likely execute a secondary payload or perform other malicious actions upon opening the document.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • Legacy Excel formula macro virus marker critical OLE_XLS_FORMULA_MACRO_VIRUS
    Workbook stream contains self-identifying legacy Excel formula macro virus markers. This indicates the document carries formula macro virus content even when no VBA project or modern XLM macro-sheet structure is present.
  • 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
e59a311bfd17edf638e82e475c41591e4cd0e0e64e313fb54a17f7a590e85c7d		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 35280 bytes

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