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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a60dc33a48f6b02e…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

68.0 KB Created: 2020-09-20 21:17:44
MD5: badaf62054397c6d979d164b4762de16 SHA-1: b9975278ae8960efaa7425f6c1cbe83628935216 SHA-256: a60dc33a48f6b02e7084884c28cb1705aea13a6552641223ab717d810b010329
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro that utilizes dangerous functions like RUN. This indicates an attempt to execute arbitrary commands, likely for downloading and executing a second-stage payload. The presence of an embedded URL, although currently marked as benign, is a common delivery vector for such attacks. The heuristic for visible LOLBin command execution further supports the malicious intent.

Heuristics 4

  • XLM Auto_Open with dangerous formula APIs high 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.
  • Visible LOLBin command execution instruction high SE_LOLBIN_RUN_COMMAND
    Document contains instructions or visible command text involving Windows script/execution tools such as PowerShell, mshta, cmd, rundll32, or regsvr32
  • 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.
  • 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 https://tinyurl.com/y23pv4qt

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
d85b6e64e1188e3b59dcad4420fdbeb5efaf02e92c6c78c9de538045cf5c2eb5
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1023 bytes