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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a39830fb37f0ff0f…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:45:47 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: d821220b786cf0dea4a7034d381a3edb SHA-1: 4d13c0086b30d34dcddfcb794f214f465d25ac58 SHA-256: a39830fb37f0ff0f4a9918767d76971824fb1bd97562d0a7ce28a43fe144f2df
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.001 PowerShell T1059.003 Windows Command Shell

The file contains Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheets, specifically triggering the critical OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN and OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN heuristics. The presence of an Auto_Open defined name indicates that the macro will execute automatically upon opening the workbook. The dangerous formula APIs used in the macro suggest it is designed to run arbitrary commands, likely to download and execute a second-stage payload. No specific family could be identified, but the technique is common for initial access.

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
5263ed1d9a2adcaae0dadcb1433c701316febfc8779db018fd88831eea615d7c
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6846 bytes