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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a03dee7858a223b8…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

237.0 KB Created: 2020-05-21 07:37:48 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 902e2db196e2e11559740651b97e2a45 SHA-1: 118a77513325d3fc5413de6d03fd4c82845b84f3 SHA-256: a03dee7858a223b8dc56ccf191086ede95bb04bc21940d316396b4a25df5376e
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The critical heuristics indicate the presence of obfuscated Excel 4.0 macros with an Auto_Open execution chain. The macro code uses a series of `FORMULA(CHAR(...))` calls, which are heavily obfuscated and likely intended to construct and execute a command to download and run a second-stage payload. The specific formulas are too complex and truncated to reconstruct the exact command or URL, but the overall pattern suggests a downloader or initial access mechanism.

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.
  • Obfuscated XLM Auto_Open execution chain critical OLE_XLM_OBFUSCATED_AUTOEXEC_CHAIN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet contains an Auto_Open / Auto_Close entry and an obfuscated formula execution chain. The macro builds strings through FORMULA(CHAR(...)), primes state with SET.VALUE / GET.CELL / GOTO, and transfers control through RUN(). This is a high-confidence XLM malware pattern.
  • 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
04611b9093c8f3c3aaf744dff9c5f91966aefccee40560e874604a4ace66e8fc
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 129419 bytes