Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 b93a9e972d297bb2…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

96.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 64ce728339d9ca928a4f2643b6098dda SHA-1: 43fb58a8536b4b97cb812f8c02329703d3085cc7 SHA-256: b93a9e972d297bb2a0ae163d5c9a087bf29dc5db48eaab8d9e0e5560f48065c0
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File

The file is an Excel macro-enabled spreadsheet (XLSM) containing Excel 4.0 macros. Heuristics indicate the use of dangerous XLM functions like CALL, EXEC, and FORMULA, which are commonly used to download and execute arbitrary code. The embedded URLs are highly suspicious and likely serve as the source for the second-stage payload. The document body appears to be a garbled concatenation of URLs and potentially decoy text, further suggesting a malicious intent to lure the user into downloading a payload.

Heuristics 5

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (2 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: CALL, EXEC, HALT, FORMULA critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • Suspicious extracted artifact medium 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.
  • 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://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
d4e5a67693d75e095a17cab23a8b06c4a2995b242fb2cba01a2e95fde97ffcab
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet2.xml 5553 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.xml
c2d3fa7ef4134b7909a800fa462ff585e2b23edde225710c1ec7bb10de221199
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 208835 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 shell/COM execution token(s).