XL4Poppy — Office (OLE) malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 db6d75778027b2b3…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

680.5 KB Created: 2010-02-23 04:27:08 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 35fe49f75f44997ce080b80fe0801010 SHA-1: e2cc723ad250e9a45c38172cceb33bc47a37852f SHA-256: db6d75778027b2b3270c691ffe8676af3e8e72f6b882ca29c62ae334b20feb8c
240 Risk Score

Malware Insights

XL4Poppy · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1059.001 PowerShell T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled workbook containing an Auto_Open macro. Heuristics indicate it belongs to the legacy XLM macro-virus family, specifically XL4Poppy. The macro sheet contains formulas that execute dangerous APIs, including the RUN function, suggesting it's designed to download and execute a second-stage payload. The document body contains Vietnamese text related to a party invitation, likely a lure.

Heuristics 4

  • Excel 4.0 (XLM) Auto_Open + macro sheet critical OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN
    Workbook contains an Auto_Open / Auto_Close defined name together with an Excel 4.0 macro sheet — the canonical XLM auto-execution shape used by malware families such as Emotet and QakBot.
  • 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.
  • Legacy XLM macro-virus family marker critical OLE_XLM_LEGACY_MACRO_VIRUS
    Workbook contains an Excel 4.0 macro Auto_Open chain and legacy macro-virus family strings. This is a narrow indicator for infected XLM workbooks rather than ordinary formula use.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
09c28f99b357cf2af9853a5cc51587e524dbe1fdc85999b8fb4e202d1f18cb0a
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 158744 bytes