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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 c27a154d4f28befa…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

106.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: 0587dd90cfc478a11f2b110668764e29 SHA-1: 7a305fe04e4d09f24d8151f5b4d9fb7a67a78feb SHA-256: c27a154d4f28befa0e239e0990e0dfb9683e5773d8d5de59af43e6dbc6d1ab55
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample is an XLSM file containing Excel 4.0 macros. The macros utilize dangerous functions like CALL and EXEC, indicating an attempt to download and execute a second-stage payload from one of the provided URLs. The presence of these functions and the macro sheet structure strongly suggest a malicious intent to compromise the user's system.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 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, FORMULA.FILL, HALT 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.
  • 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 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
63f9e5eb17c995d0e7d2ee834d0d2e49b6ccfcc236abef3c2751a08932270a4c
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 250355 bytes