Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 da8caea69dceb741…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

37.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:43:12 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 6533ebb305b8ec6171acbfdf1cb9d8c1 SHA-1: 5c7ef00abccf8eb6ee04fbcef501001d1e3de8bc SHA-256: da8caea69dceb74167452937c467602abe04419bfabd539914d3809e637965fc
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical indicator of malicious activity. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code. While the exact payload is not discernible from the provided evidence, the Auto_Open macro is a common technique for initial execution of malware.

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
5858f33cb9a276d1b8800e719401cac6936ac5364f5a2ce68605dd628df0e81b		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6807 bytes

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