Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis — malicious · 9fb5877a28cfb334

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

96.5 KB Created: 1996-12-17 01:32:42 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel

MD5: e1f06cf70f3d3683f76149f3167a42ca SHA-1: 5b516239aa847c66dc2b20d82c8456b4a5f4f3f1 SHA-256: 9fb5877a28cfb334ce9e194bbf847cdb1a1c49875772aada8a49cdabe4e747f8

628 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.001 PowerShell T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.003 Windows Command Shell T1218.011 Signed Binary Proxy Execution: Rundll32 T1082 System Information Discovery T1071.001 Web Protocols: Web Protocols

The sample is an Excel file containing VBA macros, specifically triggering on Workbook_Open and Auto_Open events. The VBA code utilizes WScript.Shell and WMI (Win32_Process.Create) to execute commands, indicating a downloader or dropper functionality. The presence of 'SE_ENABLE_LURE' and 'SE_CLIPBOARD_COMMAND_LURE' heuristics suggests the document actively tries to trick the user into enabling macros and potentially executing commands. No specific family could be identified, but the techniques are common for initial access.

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.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`macros.bas` `754d8b8af41642fd1433c4162d90ff81dcc08369ede784bd7da6d0aeecfea036`	vba-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source)	27117 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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