Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a3ab66a0d7276af7…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:45:50 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-07-07
MD5: 55efceb1b8257418833bf92bf875965f SHA-1: 188ac7828d3d7c77d91719ea5bde422a1b640cd6 SHA-256: a3ab66a0d7276af75b50b306b7ad33632911f65c604944a493afce8a27518a7f
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled workbook. Static analysis detected an Auto_Open defined name, indicating that macros will execute automatically upon opening. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code, likely downloading and running a second-stage payload.

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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6713 bytes
SHA-256: 960cf123bb1850abac517445004e0ff4c46df2758bb3ccab0e11fecd768c0b48
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     17 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  DJtqKgfZ
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!I193 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - BWeaiTnE len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - BZJJP len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - dicoBIf len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - FFBRHzgjJyh len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - iJjIQKa len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - iVgTRdEVW len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - JgatCtZI len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - JktpngwUi len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - jsaKePYjUE len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - pgcAPp len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - QCzvKJMUw len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - RYxkc len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - sHWLHHYB len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - SkWISCrmDWc len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - UdKxGTvY len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - uwcXcaWuJzv len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - vgEPN len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - wctBC len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - XzqHtKfi len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ybtTKC len=0 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST
... (truncated)

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