Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9cc58104a3cbbebe…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

219.2 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300
MD5: d7972dace5d421f0ad74065229a04b38 SHA-1: 3641c7293206dcb0ea0f1cc6dc2141925dc9e4ef SHA-256: 9cc58104a3cbbebee42fdaf525a4f64945e6577c80cbf5003405eace73dcf890
208 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The sample is an XLSM file containing Excel 4.0 macros, which are known to be used for malicious purposes. The critical heuristic 'OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN' indicates the use of dangerous XLM formula APIs like FORMULA and EXEC, which can be used to download and execute payloads. The presence of URLs pointing to .dat files suggests a download mechanism for a second-stage payload. The Auto_Open macro further indicates that the malicious code is designed to execute automatically upon opening the document.

Heuristics 7

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (3 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: FORMULA, HALT, GOTO, REGISTER, EXEC critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • Auto_Open macro high OLE_VBA_AUTO
    Auto_Open macro
  • VBA project inside OOXML medium OOXML_VBA
    Document contains vbaProject.bin — VBA macros present
  • Suspicious extracted artifact medium 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.
  • Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET
    Excel workbook contains 3 hidden sheet(s) — hidden sheets are commonly used to conceal macro code, staging data, or intermediate payload construction
  • 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 http://190.14.37.27/44313,6048108796.dat
    • http://45.12.32.224/44313,6048108796.dat
    • http://45.138.157.166/44313,6048108796.dat
    • http://190.14.37.27/
    • http://45.12.32.224/
    • http://45.138.157.166/
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6

Extracted artifacts 5

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas
575cff377c7ce9d2de7685d876b3a2e3b5d44fd0e98df30551dc0a89c078d748
vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source from OOXML) 2220 bytes
vbaProject_00.bin
2d07b82507fab53c31f819941ee14e51eedaebebf234cd704dd73ad782aca889
vba-project OOXML VBA project: xl/vbaProject.bin 17408 bytes
xlm_sheet_00.xml
4b541eb16854fe12203dcacfe068687f6e4b61c7316db7fb9e2ba695ebb3cfaa
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 4155 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.xml
75cb5bc00f344f305f75bbbcb076dfbef840999cdacdab06b49b508e12c29f0e
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.xml 2140 bytes
xlm_sheet_02.xml
dde6292619407cd5e321eae6ffce78ceda2ffd7b35d4633b1ff6c5c7a78eb139
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet3.xml 1839 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 shell/COM execution token(s).