Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a493e99d6b2e9ba3…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

19.9 KB Created: 2021-03-17 08:40:07 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300
MD5: 8f3e4a4679754768a8a17390e8f7d88b SHA-1: 3df901e85298d8dcb3fe62f3617d522f4483df97 SHA-256: a493e99d6b2e9ba3da0233f4413d5bdb19edc593c227e07631e2e43af2c0eb83
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.001 PowerShell

The file is an Excel macro-enabled sheet (XLSM) containing Excel 4.0 macros, specifically triggered by an Auto_Open defined name. The document body contains social engineering text prompting the user to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content'. This strongly suggests the macro is designed to execute malicious code upon opening, likely to download and execute a second-stage payload. No specific family could be identified, and no external IOCs were extracted.

Heuristics 3

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
86e4dbbc2c45b6cf3a97d104b563ff6b54010c776f9c6c60b1af9d56290c374e		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 16248 bytes

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