Malicious Office (OOXML) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a5089be9bdb8d607…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML)

897.1 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2021-03-01
MD5: 14448cd4c132cf5f6a226d9ab0247f13 SHA-1: 33490bf3030357ed432b77c7eaefae9087c99785 SHA-256: a5089be9bdb8d607ff85ba0f066ea731c9634f535e24035ff710b23c83702b9f
240 Risk Score

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 sheet(s)) critical 3 related findings 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 macro sheet stored under disguised package path critical OOXML_XLM_DISGUISED_RELATIONSHIP
    OOXML package declares an xlMacrosheet relationship whose target is outside the canonical xl/macrosheets/ path. Excel follows the relationship type, while path-only scanners can miss the macro execution surface.
  • 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.
  • Binary XLM macro sheet with WinAPI/download strings critical OOXML_XLM_BINARY_WINAPI_STRINGS
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet is stored as BIFF12/XLSB binary data and contains Win32 download or process-execution API strings such as URLDownloadToFileA, ShellExecuteA, or CreateDirectoryA. These strings are high-signal in XLM macro sheets and catch payload-download macros that XML-formula scanners cannot parse.