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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 d2a683a22cd0063f…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

106.0 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 14.0300
MD5: caa9c3b3d3cadc15d4ff1d19feaec729 SHA-1: 70a8addacb632e0770b2be987aab8b41bcffa038 SHA-256: d2a683a22cd0063f5b02df9970e19194fed1fea420f6f7bd28ca66d4eaec23fb
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Service Utility T1204.002 Malicious File: Malicious File

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet that uses dangerous functions like CALL and EXEC to download and execute payloads. The document body contains multiple URLs that are likely used for this purpose. The Auto_Open function indicates that the malicious code will execute automatically when the document is opened.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 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.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: CALL, EXEC, FORMULA.FILL, HALT 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.
  • 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://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

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
63f9e5eb17c995d0e7d2ee834d0d2e49b6ccfcc236abef3c2751a08932270a4c		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 250355 bytes

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