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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e29c13359154f2c3…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

39.0 KB Created: 2010-03-01 23:51:01 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: ed3dea1a8d90cdb5726fd2456109ab7d SHA-1: c75e9f5abee25ee210cf614102abb2081351d963 SHA-256: e29c13359154f2c3156056acf018d6a70560a44e5e8eab8978f5196414b0175a
208 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Service Execution T1059.001 PowerShell: PowerShell T1566.001 Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment

The file contains critical heuristic firings indicating the presence of Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro. The 'XLM_DANGEROUS_FN' firing points to the use of risky functions like RUN. The 'XLM_FORMULA_MACRO_VIRUS' firing suggests this is a known legacy Excel formula macro virus. The presence of 'XL4Poppy' and a path to 'xlstart\Book1.' in the document body further supports the macro-based execution and potential infection vector.

Heuristics 5

  • 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 Excel formula macro virus marker critical OLE_XLS_FORMULA_MACRO_VIRUS
    Workbook stream contains self-identifying legacy Excel formula macro virus markers. This indicates the document carries formula macro virus content even when no VBA project or modern XLM macro-sheet structure is present.
  • 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.
  • VBA project contains no executable statements low OLE_VBA_MACROS
    Document contains a VBA project, but extracted modules only contain attributes/options/comments and no executable statements.

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
916f5a05c9105e99c99521dea3d3f5ba543e83e9ce9b4cc8551c82976d7abecf		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 17929 bytes
macros.bas
d727f6e55121988ddf484b03cb4cb29a49dd25c5a819024d2a7640fe635c525a		 vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source) 300 bytes

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