Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 ba267727e236c0e9…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

255.0 KB Created: 2020-07-29 08:52:37 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2020-09-15
MD5: 2eab4c7ad0cecb1186f786936e81d9fb SHA-1: 784547fb1c7fe222f94cfcfae2ab829202becc4c SHA-256: ba267727e236c0e9adba8632510c00fba8ef65df0fba2a26434fea5453374a7d
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled document containing an Auto_Open macro. This macro is designed to evade environment checks and uses dangerous functions, indicating malicious intent. The document body's text suggests a lure to enable editing and content, which would allow the XLM macro to execute and likely download a second-stage payload.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • XLM Auto_Open environment-evasion HALT gate high OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_HALT
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes multiple GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW environment checks and halts execution when the host does not match the expected user environment. This is a common sandbox-evasion pattern in XLM malware and is stronger than a bare XLM macro-sheet indicator.
  • 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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 270933 bytes
SHA-256: d11d1f660c48e917c57b88a80ad2cb6a15dca5d75b3364d476ecc43210f10016
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  VFJdyC
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open hidden len=7 ptgNameX  NAMEIDX 5 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - CdzKfDhXm len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - DVBNnpwjLf len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - eAYxwadMaL len=0 
' 0018     30 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -          hidden len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!HS5729 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - gFXQDDnfg len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - JqLdHRdw len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - LalIaJ len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - LSdLgCXguIXy len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - MbDLzqF len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - NENxUbGv len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - NnRitlTrqN len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - pFeinjFzP len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - szZBJRQUF len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - tdtQbGjzt len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - XHfhuXcaMidE len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - YrWqutJlZql len=0 
' 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
' 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
' 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
' 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
' 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
' 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
' 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
' 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
' 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
' 00f
... (truncated)