Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a20b44d3b4ffb900…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:43:38 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 29c892884d2978cad52c167c6b615f3f SHA-1: e5a202a04cda6354c92dc278c5dd4ae391569603 SHA-256: a20b44d3b4ffb900381b464f0aeca3a7f166eee55f18eb4d00f90c3c87349845
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical finding indicating automatic execution upon opening. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN further suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary commands. While the exact payload is not visible, this setup is typical for downloading and executing a second-stage malicious file.

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
c49868a7b9074c3384b5a54da70839fbfaa914548137db0d4099878f86ce5c27		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6659 bytes

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