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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e852792b848c0f17…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

31.0 KB Created: 2021-01-25 16:06:10 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: db5932bb7f1db407ce29409a7348f8b0 SHA-1: 3476114204e12d02616e9dcd9fb88ac5caaba19c SHA-256: e852792b848c0f179f132022c3adc2eb6f83990eed9df69384a025395fea6c44
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled workbook. It contains an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening. The document body explicitly instructs the user to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content', indicating a social engineering lure to bypass security measures. The presence of the Auto_Open macro and the lure strongly suggest a malicious intent to execute arbitrary code.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • XLM Auto_Open with dangerous formula APIs critical OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet contains an Auto_Open / Auto_Close entry and dangerous XLM formula APIs that can invoke programs, write files, or transfer control without VBA.
  • 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
0f0c3f14ab1ec394627ddf4fc7df587e745815d1a8bc9301beeb144620ded844		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 3413 bytes

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.