Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis — malicious · ce2c475461d57f22

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

781.5 KB Created: 2025-08-04 06:33:36

MD5: 81159738f7ffb50d5bc3c75e5e0ac546 SHA-1: 1bf3bf9e27fcc89ae7d38dafe5d71d7d9dfd4286 SHA-256: ce2c475461d57f222a6aa22f49420f804a43c2eb29abf8553457a7d30f7cb024

588 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.005 Visual Basic T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer T1059.003 Windows Command Shell

The sample is an Excel spreadsheet containing a price list, which serves as a lure. It contains VBA macros that automatically execute upon opening, specifically a Workbook_Open macro that calls the 'shell' function. This macro is designed to drop and execute an embedded PE executable (embedded_office_000038bd.exe), as indicated by the 'OLE_EMBEDDED_EXE' and 'EXTRACTED_FILE_CLAMAV' heuristics. The embedded executable is detected by ClamAV as Win.Loader.Covenant-10058832-0, suggesting it's a loader for further malicious activity.

Heuristics 14

XOR-encoded strings (key 0x75) critical SC_XOR_ENCODED

Found 1 Windows library/API name(s) XOR-encoded with single-byte key 0x75: 'LoadLibraryW'
Embedded PE executable critical OLE_EMBEDDED_EXE

MZ/PE header found inside document — possible embedded executable
ClamAV: Doc.Malware.Macros-10058718-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION

ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Malware.Macros-10058718-0
ClamAV detection on extracted artifact critical EXTRACTED_FILE_CLAMAV

ClamAV flagged at least one file extracted from inside this sample. Even when the wrapping document carries no AV detection of its own, a hit on the carved artifact is a strong indicator the sample is a delivery vehicle.
PEB access via GS segment (x64) high SC_PEB_ACCESS_X64

PEB access via GS segment (x64)
Reference to CreateProcess API high SC_STR_CREATEPROCESS

Reference to CreateProcess API
Reference to LoadLibrary API high SC_STR_LOADLIBRARY

Reference to LoadLibrary API
Reference to GetProcAddress API high SC_STR_GETPROCADDRESS

Reference to GetProcAddress API
Workbook_Open macro high OLE_VBA_WBOPEN

Workbook_Open macro
CreateObject call high OLE_VBA_CREATEOBJ

CreateObject call
VBA p-code auto-exec with execution tokens high OLE_VBA_PCODE_AUTOEXEC_EXEC

Compiled VBA/cache stream contains an auto-execution token together with shell/download/object-execution tokens. This catches p-code-only or source-extraction-failure macro documents where visible source is unavailable.
Suspicious extracted artifact high EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE

One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
VBA macros detected medium OLE_VBA_MACROS

Document contains VBA macro code
Environ() call (env variable access) low OLE_VBA_ENVIRON

Environ() call (env variable access)

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`macros.bas` `9f432fc77d2da8c384dd0014fea97e8a38f68617c902061caa00af0c8b574504`	vba-macro	oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source)	23242 bytes
Detection ClamAV: No threats found Obfuscation or payload: likely Carved macro source contains an auto-exec entry point and execution/download terms.
`embedded_office_000038bd.exe` `4f59a15ec8954971503d0a14a31d849c1930096c31f53c8b01dee45659cdf324`	embedded-pe	Office MZ+PE at offset 0x38BD	785731 bytes
Detection ClamAV: Win.Loader.Covenant-10058832-0 Obfuscation or payload: likely Carved macro source contains an auto-exec entry point and execution/download terms.

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