Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 ea89631bde545e98…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.5 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:38:41 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-06-17
MD5: aae6011a98f2b8244eb578a012ac1633 SHA-1: adbbcca7544114dbfed8cc963a7594b74ec6918e SHA-256: ea89631bde545e9819bb9d4257f4b6d5b4a11c59c3f5a20818a0db6ef1fb534f
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution

The file contains Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical indicator of malicious intent. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code, likely to download and run a secondary payload. No specific family could be identified from the available evidence.

Heuristics 3

  • 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.

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) 6839 bytes
SHA-256: adb83822ff1b5b7d6243c366ff09770ec3685126052093f9daef2f2122bfe934
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     18 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  mYjrAhABI
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - APQtEnUNI len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!B173 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - bGLZCcZaxUwO len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - EBaXsZJOy len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - EPcurHAwq len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - EPFrs len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - EVbtTUZicQm len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - FaiMYPUkX len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hskYMRbRwoL len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - jpQVdxiH len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - KOASNbWUfXC len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - LJCPbbHT len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - LxoVfsailpJC len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - MSCBnM len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - nJhekr len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - nZWqiLiSbh len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - SqhptyqghHp len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - TZRkDIww len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - uAxLTKzF len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - vyGOaHILpSg len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ZjMnsXYxB len=0 
' 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
... (truncated)

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