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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9ed616c16ba4682a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

373.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 2a1886f832e556721d6690dfc84507f2 SHA-1: dbb490c76036c07bf6f226e50690a01499d538f0 SHA-256: 9ed616c16ba4682a31a7440c3b6123def413d23a99c805854c2b334b63e3e491
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File

The critical heuristics indicate the presence of Excel 4.0 macros with an Auto_Open function that utilizes dangerous API calls like RUN. The 'Macro/content-enable lure' heuristic further suggests the document prompts the user to enable macros. The extracted URLs are likely part of the payload delivery chain. The XLM macros are designed to download and execute a second-stage payload from the embedded URLs.

Heuristics 5

  • 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.
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings
  • 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://pfamilydentist.com/OgdaW8AjEF/alex.html
    • https://thevoorpret.com/wQSapbrm9WmH/alex.html

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
7eb5e48f136258965c2495a123fc1d7ae2138b901360da5008973ba86cc22008
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 5292 bytes