Malicious Office (OOXML) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 c76bb9443baff9e7…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML)

249.7 KB Created: 2021-04-07 06:31:40 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2021-11-20
MD5: e1edead6d69e4c33cf44904ef2bd0b0f SHA-1: e357ddf5ece78bac5666462c264a736230ef239f SHA-256: c76bb9443baff9e799b3b1cd7c4bd18759ff17acf50f2c3e6f9970caf3015a8f
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros that are designed to reassemble and execute a payload. Specifically, the macros use `certutil -decode` to decode a payload and save it as `Kernel32WinExecJCJcmd.exe` in the public user directory. This indicates a downloader or dropper functionality.

Heuristics 2

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 sheet(s)) critical 1 related finding 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. The macro sheet is stored as XLSB/BIFF12 binary content, which many XML-only OOXML scanners miss.
  • XLM payload reassembled from CHAR()/split formulas critical OOXML_XLM_REASSEMBLED_PAYLOAD
    An Excel 4.0 macro sheet builds its payload inside the formula token stream by concatenating per-character CHAR() calls and string fragments, so no WinAPI name, shell command, or URL is ever contiguous in the .bin for a literal-bytes scan to find. Reassembling the formulas recovered download/execute API names, LOLBin commands (regsvr32/rundll32/mshta/wmic/powershell), or a payload URL — the de-obfuscated download-and-run kill chain.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.bin xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.bin 2411 bytes
SHA-256: ca340cc9cdd68012fc2ece04eaf439a02170ea63ba1979519bba447977a9bd9c
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
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