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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e5dfd0b67d13a8f1…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

213.5 KB Created: 2020-09-24 19:33:19 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 1527c1adc27d168a0acb629776a7550c SHA-1: acbf9b61a7715489f4d1c4adc9ea24c1b12aca47 SHA-256: e5dfd0b67d13a8f1f05c29afc76dce434b56e8c07efb6ea232066c0d9d492bb4
60 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet that is encrypted, as indicated by the OLE_XLM_ENCRYPTED_MACROSHEET heuristic. The OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN heuristic further suggests that macros are present and likely intended to run automatically. The document body is heavily obfuscated and truncated, preventing a detailed analysis of its specific intent. However, the presence of encrypted macros strongly implies malicious intent, likely for initial execution of a payload.

Heuristics 2

  • Encrypted Excel 4.0 macro sheet high OLE_XLM_ENCRYPTED_MACROSHEET
    Workbook contains an Excel 4.0 macro sheet and BIFF FILEPASS encryption. Password-protected XLM macro sheets, especially the default Excel password path, are a common malware evasion pattern because static formula extraction may fail until the workbook is decrypted.
  • 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.