Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e740a31059c98247…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

148.0 KB Created: 2018-10-26 23:29:59 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2020-07-24
MD5: c3bb670220f2cb549de756c91cd0ddfc SHA-1: 1840a149e93b02c6b22fde347cd2ce8a99ff4338 SHA-256: e740a31059c982473da3d015cf5fdbf36db287842d3b8317b6a49ab78af6d0e5
80 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The critical heuristic firing indicates the presence of an Excel 4.0 macro sheet with an Auto_Open defined name, which is a common technique for executing malicious code when the workbook is opened. The macro sheet itself is heavily obfuscated, preventing a deeper analysis of its specific actions. However, the presence of an Auto_Open macro strongly suggests an intent to execute arbitrary code, likely as part of a phishing attack.

Heuristics 2

  • 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.

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 91886 bytes
SHA-256: bfea3cc21e65807374eccc52a0f3206b151b6a45787c397342f8d4000a716970
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  ETjzGX
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open hidden len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!HU21333 
' 0018     30 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -      hidden len=11 ptgArea3d  *INCOMPLETE FORMULA PARSING* Remaining, unparsed expression: b'\x00\x00RS\xc1S\xae\x00\xae\x00'
' 0018     31 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -           hidden len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!HU21339 
' 0018     30 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -          hidden len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!HU21335 
' 0018     28 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -        hidden len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!HU21337 
' 0018     29 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -     hidden len=11 ptgArea3d  *INCOMPLETE FORMULA PARSING* Remaining, unparsed expression: b'\x00\x00ZS\xb5S\xd2\x00\xd2\x00'
' 0018     29 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -     hidden len=11 ptgArea3d  *INCOMPLETE FORMULA PARSING* Remaining, unparsed expression: b'\x00\x00+S|S\xb3\x00\xb3\x00'
' 0018     30 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -          hidden len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!HU21338 
' 0018     28 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - zhlLtb hidden len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!HU21333 
' 0018     29 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant -     hidden len=11 ptgArea3d  *INCOMPLETE FORMULA PARSING* Remaining, unparsed expression: b'\x00\x00\x8cS(T\xc1\x00\xc1\x00'
' 002a      2 PRINTHEADERS : Print Row/Column Labels
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SST
' 00fd     10 LABELSST : Cell Value, String Constant/ SS
... (truncated)

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