Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9f74eeafb86c4f73…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:42:04 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 86a57f53ced76d3f4dae3e0ae07cf264 SHA-1: fe776894f315e7ae9a9ed51a10950ed39ab45b87 SHA-256: 9f74eeafb86c4f732c1b32ec49f8b1d66ed2659e4e43c0decad7113d6f35f3b6
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The critical heuristics indicate the presence of Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known method for executing malicious code within older Excel versions. The presence of dangerous formula APIs further increases the risk. The macro sheet itself contains obfuscated data, suggesting an attempt to hide its malicious intent.

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
6aea4c980220ae17525ad08d7bc526bcf9c469693c1743780f4700f729f3dfb6		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6586 bytes

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