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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 cc0c8c0769f84c67…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

112.1 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300
MD5: 588a5d2bcc1b13e2497bc30555c54070 SHA-1: e81eaeb4dd1d1d441b2b9f97f28400550991dda8 SHA-256: cc0c8c0769f84c6795a2e08e783690a0fe9b8a06cce4f7591a516a538a43b439
188 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The sample is an XLSM file containing Excel 4.0 macros, which are known to be used for malicious purposes. The critical heuristic 'OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN' indicates the use of dangerous XLM functions like FORMULA and EXEC, which can be used to download and execute arbitrary code. The presence of embedded URLs pointing to suspicious IP addresses further supports this. The macros likely download and execute a second-stage payload from one of the provided URLs.

Heuristics 6

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (3 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.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: FORMULA, HALT, GOTO, REGISTER, EXEC 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.
  • Auto_Open macro high OLE_VBA_AUTO
    Auto_Open macro
  • VBA project inside OOXML medium OOXML_VBA
    Document contains vbaProject.bin — VBA macros present
  • 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://185.82.219.131/44313,6048108796.dat
    • http://45.84.1.195/44313,6048108796.dat
    • http://185.238.0.40/44313,6048108796.dat
    • http://185.238.0.40/
    • http://45.84.1.195/
    • http://185.82.219.131/
    • 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
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6

Extracted artifacts 5

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas
336c54ce55c4f97b2e578c36c24779a5cbf4053bf1babc3f97ec244f65df85ae
vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source from OOXML) 1451 bytes
vbaProject_00.bin
82f147ef4622124b990fa97fb82d52ce21a1a719f45158e458ccdd0608e1339c
vba-project OOXML VBA project: xl/vbaProject.bin 16384 bytes
xlm_sheet_00.xml
7bda064f9dd7461df3562edd896d831d9cbcce6b3896f4ceedf5c0e558bfe6d1
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 3807 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.xml
195a22194deb18d457e7a276044a8954c5a468f56b51b6a1ff34e52b2b6585ae
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.xml 2129 bytes
xlm_sheet_02.xml
790f162dfe4d36146f6098416bb54d0d0a33d67d88c8fea35d57cce261bdd8f0
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet3.xml 1943 bytes