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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 b03eaca8bf767d9c…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:38:46 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: cfe8af0e78b20da27333ee16e64438bd SHA-1: 2af639451d1e661fb9a46a8fba62de6d60b3f20e SHA-256: b03eaca8bf767d9c5e7675853feb358c53c90cebe4130b2a523d77e779751668
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical heuristic firing. This indicates the macro will execute automatically upon opening the workbook. The presence of the 'RUN' function within the macro sheet is a strong indicator that the macro is designed to execute an external program or download a payload. While no specific URLs or hashes were extracted, the technique itself is highly suspicious and commonly used for initial payload delivery.

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.
  • 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.
  • 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
c3a7a2a1056ad7f30f0ecc6a5baa068a676e1ac81be0ce6c58d9132d28754bdc
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6522 bytes