Qbot — Office (OOXML) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e7de37551a34eeed…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

333.2 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2022-03-01
MD5: b0f3cb90dcd8e7dde226c100a8458211 SHA-1: 90efe57f898be15164c4821931277d3da1d50008 SHA-256: e7de37551a34eeedad94894e8d087d4d9b8242e1441e57e27ba6dc0b0dc23180
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Qbot · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The sample is identified as malicious by ClamAV with the signature Xls.Downloader.Qbot-aa2a2a3fd5f4342a-9950245-0. It contains multiple Excel 4.0 macro sheets, a known technique for delivering malware. The extracted script content reveals URLs such as '185.82.126.154/', '46.17.107.177/', and '190.14.37.159/' which are likely used to download and execute a second-stage payload, consistent with Qbot's behavior.

Heuristics 3

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (13 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. The macro sheet is stored as XLSB/BIFF12 binary content, which many XML-only OOXML scanners miss.
  • XLSB international XLM macro sheet hidden in .xlsx critical OOXML_XLSB_INTL_MACROSHEET_IN_XLSX
    OOXML package is named .xlsx but contains XLSB workbook parts and an international Excel 4.0 macro sheet. This hides XLM macro execution from scanners that trust the extension or only inspect XML worksheet parts. The technique is macro execution, not a document-parser CVE.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.Qbot-aa2a2a3fd5f4342a-9950245-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Qbot-aa2a2a3fd5f4342a-9950245-0

Extracted artifacts 13

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.bin
5fb5a9e6ec1dacc189efcc6a68093d9b5c376b223dcb27f862984427d2aac0e2
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.bin 363 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.bin
ba5e5763834271ba880d12a1d9d087318dfeb79200a2768622aef88ef82966e4
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet2.bin 924 bytes
xlm_sheet_02.bin
b4a48767cf58a2bdfb4a9512f86d320a81f9b6848ccd27326117e801d301aa04
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.bin 2273 bytes
xlm_sheet_03.bin
23aafcc1adf9634e9bc0e1315228fd143328c08f27b5e56be6e6167b122184ae
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet3.bin 1701 bytes
xlm_sheet_04.bin
93c463343ef7f1e9e791647d561f007c38659ae4a327b3ebb864f048f16a58f6
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet4.bin 659 bytes
xlm_sheet_05.bin
4d4dd95373ceffcdeae0a74dfa09b90bd3ce229ab64dd70c7fe0f05e5b469bbd
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet5.bin 648 bytes
xlm_sheet_06.bin
8d957f41705fc5da60f409cd3c460bdb601935e6214bf78485f23a85cb252024
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet6.bin 622 bytes
xlm_sheet_07.bin
000bc8d70715fdc1e9f90bbf8ea8d827eb7d942c3f16b2c5b6d16539d6622ba7
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet7.bin 446 bytes
xlm_sheet_08.bin
104ea4dd6393a2e7568a3476bef8861dc03f02ff70847c1579759679f5b37241
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.bin 843 bytes
xlm_sheet_09.bin
617d9277b8cae5e22b22f75d36f1c1410a208c497dfd9b1fc50732ce8b8e39ba
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet8.bin 423 bytes
xlm_sheet_10.bin
fe57f943858a8919ed6e91709a3b6f572e0ddbcba21b32c8fbf3c96821baa7a0
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet3.bin 748 bytes
xlm_sheet_11.bin
93ba72b98161dad073a1ddc9f87bed6380b6a369d49aed308df35146fe953084
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet4.bin 748 bytes
xlm_sheet_12.bin
2bd138650fa507a83c5a96a8b7ece29759f24ed721eaf50eae3ada328413aacb
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet9.bin 423 bytes