Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 ce5e01d5cfcf0cc0…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:39:25 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 49cd3c32ecc91ee8622e8fabbc52da76 SHA-1: 12b0118dea07389acff5b194cad1f304a822ecef SHA-256: ce5e01d5cfcf0cc0b457f1d8e4ec903101fe1baa0a2d866aca6b361502950c1c
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The presence of dangerous formula APIs within the macro sheet indicates an intent to run arbitrary commands, likely to download and execute a second-stage payload. No specific family could be identified from the available evidence.

Heuristics 3

  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    oletools recovered an Auto_Open / Auto_Close entry from an Excel 4.0 macro sheet. The raw BIFF name can be tokenized or partially opaque to byte-string checks, but the recovered macro listing confirms the workbook has an XLM auto-execution entry.
  • XLM Auto_Open with dangerous formula APIs critical OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet contains an Auto_Open / Auto_Close entry and dangerous XLM formula APIs that can invoke programs, write files, or transfer control without VBA.
  • Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet present medium OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN
    Workbook contains an Excel 4.0 macro sheet sub-stream — XLM is rarely seen in modern legitimate workbooks and was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
193353dd829e928ebb7ce707dd9aeb43a2456f2d96fa5cf7e3b77404322e1a42		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6815 bytes

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