Malicious Office (OOXML) / .XLSM — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e5e93ad9a03efad7…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

93.4 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300
MD5: 6076d3c8081b7a18d7ceb326fbbaed8f SHA-1: 2be5930d2755e388935b7ff1bdd87da43054b27c SHA-256: e5e93ad9a03efad73454ed56a86c9f3fa494fb45303f0aec5326ea9dd4a4a235
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious File T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The sample is an Excel macro-enabled spreadsheet (XLSM) containing Excel 4.0 macros. These macros utilize dangerous functions like CALL and EXEC to download and execute a payload from a remote URL. The embedded URLs and the use of regsvr32.exe strongly suggest a downloader or initial access mechanism. The specific Excel 4.0 macro sheet structure and the use of dangerous functions are key indicators.

Heuristics 5

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (1 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: EXEC, CALL, HALT, FORMULA.FILL critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • Suspicious extracted artifact medium EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE
    One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
dbd5b4cab5273f47d1adf390a0d03ac210ef33cf9bc8ef6f5a64ee3c8df213d9		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 213379 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 2 shell/COM execution token(s).

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