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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 beecb57f2ce897c1…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

234.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 88750a7fb96eb6caba32a2dd8ccc2c33 SHA-1: 5d7b6a17f3b6fe51ad6084ffb7bc7d5cbd1ad5ae SHA-256: beecb57f2ce897c1749cbf4fb51d4a5f822efc7aa50c7120702a9368756728a5
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1204.002 Malicious File

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening the workbook. The document body displays a common lure to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content', further supporting the malicious intent. The presence of environment evasion and a halt gate indicates the macro is designed to detect and avoid analysis environments. No specific IOCs like URLs or hashes were extracted, but the technique itself is highly indicative of a downloader or initial access 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
ec1dbfb1cc1e9a0034746b5953a7f94429c7829b35ec744fe29a4bc578cbd79e		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 330600 bytes

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