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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9f7cbf730929f3c7…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

95.5 KB Created: 2012-08-01 08:37:27 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: efdb6f420f0fa7b1f8ff2f4d7985198f SHA-1: 98afa9c02db60d59c2e1d2c711d8aae487855315 SHA-256: 9f7cbf730929f3c75624ab083d69408d1b2adc0a1ba1b1dffe3f5affa23cbe69
628 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1071.001 Web Protocols T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The file is a macro-enabled Excel spreadsheet containing VBA code designed to execute automatically upon opening. The Workbook_open and Auto_Open macros are present, indicating an attempt to run malicious code immediately. Heuristics indicate the use of WScript.Shell and WMI to launch processes, suggesting the script's intent is to download and execute a second-stage payload. The ClamAV detection of 'Xls.Virus.Mailcab-6702020-0' further confirms its malicious nature.

Heuristics 16

  • Shell() call in VBA critical OLE_VBA_SHELL
    Shell() call in VBA
  • WScript.Shell usage critical OLE_VBA_WSCRIPT
    WScript.Shell usage
  • VBA WMI Win32_Process launcher critical OLE_VBA_WMI_PROCESS_CREATE
    VBA macro builds or references a WMI moniker for Win32_Process and invokes .Create to start a command. This is a high-confidence macro execution chain that often hides the WMI class name through string concatenation or helper functions.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Virus.Mailcab-6702020-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Virus.Mailcab-6702020-0
  • Reference to Windows Script Host high SC_STR_WSCRIPT
    Reference to Windows Script Host
  • Workbook_Open macro high OLE_VBA_WBOPEN
    Workbook_Open macro
  • Auto_Open macro high OLE_VBA_AUTO
    Auto_Open macro
  • CreateObject call high OLE_VBA_CREATEOBJ
    CreateObject call
  • GetObject call high OLE_VBA_GETOBJ
    GetObject call
  • VBA p-code auto-exec with execution tokens high OLE_VBA_PCODE_AUTOEXEC_EXEC
    Compiled VBA/cache stream contains an auto-execution token together with shell/download/object-execution tokens. This catches p-code-only or source-extraction-failure macro documents where visible source is unavailable.
  • Clipboard command execution lure high SE_CLIPBOARD_COMMAND_LURE
    Document tells the user to copy or paste clipboard content into Run, PowerShell, cmd, or another shell-like execution context
  • Suspicious extracted artifact high 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.
  • 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.
  • VBA macros detected medium OLE_VBA_MACROS
    Document contains VBA macro code
  • 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
  • Environ() call (env variable access) low OLE_VBA_ENVIRON
    Environ() call (env variable access)

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas
9da2aa8a1662bf8f23abd1bda97ada6989db206304c6fedf8526762872084678		 vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source) 27417 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 7 shell/COM execution token(s). Carved artifact contains 9 Chr/ChrW string-construction calls. Carved macro source contains an auto-exec entry point and execution/download terms.

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