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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 b26946b651c644da…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

1.24 MB Created: 2016-04-08 13:33:00 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 81c2111250d3e298770b9fb2a6c94208 SHA-1: 01c4e96a614b43efa2dca9a941b76d8b5d805175 SHA-256: b26946b651c644daedeaea0c4bacb6a21d13f947cee161217699de59f7085ce9
448 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1140 Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information

The sample is an Excel file containing VBA macros, specifically a Workbook_Open macro, which is designed to execute automatically. The document body provides a lure instructing the user to enable macros, a common tactic for malware delivery. The VBA code utilizes WScript.Shell, CreateObject, and GetObject, indicating it likely attempts to download and execute a second-stage payload. The embedded URL http://www.frez.co.uk is a potential indicator of compromise.

Heuristics 13

  • Shell() call in VBA critical OLE_VBA_SHELL
    Shell() call in VBA
  • WScript.Shell usage critical OLE_VBA_WSCRIPT
    WScript.Shell usage
  • Reference to Windows Script Host high SC_STR_WSCRIPT
    Reference to Windows Script Host
  • Workbook_Open macro high OLE_VBA_WBOPEN
    Workbook_Open macro
  • CreateObject call high OLE_VBA_CREATEOBJ
    CreateObject call
  • GetObject call high OLE_VBA_GETOBJ
    GetObject call
  • VBA p-code auto-exec with execution tokens high OLE_VBA_PCODE_AUTOEXEC_EXEC
    Compiled VBA/cache stream contains an auto-execution token together with shell/download/object-execution tokens. This catches p-code-only or source-extraction-failure macro documents where visible source is unavailable.
  • Password-protected archive handoff high SE_PASSWORD_ARCHIVE_LURE
    Document gives password instructions for an archive or attachment — often used to keep payloads encrypted until after gateway scanning
  • Suspicious extracted artifact high EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE
    One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
  • VBA macros detected medium OLE_VBA_MACROS
    Document contains VBA macro code
  • 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
  • Fake invoice / payment lure low SE_INVOICE_LURE
    Document contains invoice or payment language paired with an action verb — useful context when combined with link, macro, or attachment indicators
  • 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 http://www.frez.co.uk

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas
cd333792479c55be13cbfe9262317f0e9548897d387e178e8e628c14182a0420
vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source) 1487318 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 4 shell/COM execution token(s). Carved artifact contains 2 eval/decoder/string-building token(s). Carved artifact contains 62 Chr/ChrW string-construction calls. Carved macro source contains an auto-exec entry point and execution/download terms.