Trickbot — Office (OOXML) malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a00a31259be3042b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML)

119.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300
MD5: 80c227f9cd0a860390afeec69fae116f SHA-1: 4bda68b5e790f92bbaa5a2b805a6eea0a0de8c4c SHA-256: a00a31259be3042ba5abda55a14e4c00e689b9c7f236dc3fc01a8b086e6558d4
250 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Trickbot · confidence 95%

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

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macro sheets that utilize dangerous functions like FORMULA and EXEC. These macros are designed to download a DLL payload from the URL 'http://162.248.225.95/d.php' and save it as '..\zvbxnx.dll'. Subsequently, it attempts to execute this DLL using 'regsvr32 -slient ..\zvbxnx.dll', indicating a downloader functionality consistent with the Trickbot family.

Heuristics 6

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (5 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.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: FORMULA, HALT 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.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.Trickbot07210-9880007-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Trickbot07210-9880007-0
  • Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET
    Excel workbook contains 1 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://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
xlm_sheet_00.xml
ead8cdcc18ca09a9f1328ae9399750e4baa9e7c6fb8ca17b0bd770971aea3f01		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 229062 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.xml
3a34f0c119b58147309018ddbc9805599240f8e8e91c55e24eb1ebd1c199c1e2		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet2.xml 1689 bytes
xlm_sheet_02.xml
b062a709274dd5fc840799089ddb6864ced137e2315ba08b0299f6065a16b375		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet3.xml 1773 bytes
xlm_sheet_03.xml
57537cc8466ada117081e749fe7167446f3f5d029fd4fb1612ea0261027bc6c1		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet4.xml 1778 bytes
xlm_sheet_04.xml
9cf98f4732ae983fd46d8cf179488facaeec3ec6d78e683880682236b3dbdb0e		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet5.xml 1879 bytes

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