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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a748fa57b2a14468…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

31.0 KB Created: 1996-12-17 01:32:42 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: f62c7817db111e7bc129c89087f37b73 SHA-1: 2f3dc69d204a70c4251dd017f556a80a4c41c1a9 SHA-256: a748fa57b2a144684e539c10c5704d84786fce97e5e7f0fd1c1d609755153471
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1547.001 Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder

The file is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet. Heuristics indicate the presence of an Auto_Open macro, which is a common technique for legacy Excel malware. The macro sheet contains references to 'RUN' and other indicators of a formula macro virus, suggesting it attempts to execute arbitrary commands or infect other workbooks. The 'Poppy by VicodinES' and 'Narkotic Network' strings point to known legacy Excel macro virus families.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • Legacy Excel formula macro virus marker critical OLE_XLS_FORMULA_MACRO_VIRUS
    Workbook stream contains self-identifying legacy Excel formula macro virus markers. This indicates the document carries formula macro virus content even when no VBA project or modern XLM macro-sheet structure is present.
  • 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
fbc56cb42d8c34241e9841a7fe9e2e636a3d8f6eab2722a31489e4af1eeb9411		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 11615 bytes

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