Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 ee5f6ff940635bde…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:47:51 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-07-07
MD5: 7d502524a6c11ee4ac6dbf124fdb1617 SHA-1: 912d652708fca136c8a5a593e92d7a7bae76821f SHA-256: ee5f6ff940635bde8dc7d8f42fe6a2eb408da3c734e89096fd5481cbe2ed475c
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical finding indicating automatic execution. The presence of dangerous formula APIs like RUN suggests the macro is designed to execute arbitrary code. While the exact payload is not visible, the technique strongly implies an attempt to download and execute a second-stage payload.

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) 6623 bytes
SHA-256: 06cb85f1c86a95899756bd5b60a1bfb873ed4f29046e351176857f5d6607560e
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     12 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  YIE
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!E149 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - bhemUh len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - BhPDEECJZ len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - brycg len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - DyVlLvGRSuXY len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - EbdJU len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - GnsMvhlLjzM len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - HPhrvVbFSfwB len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hSCawq len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - IFgEIWLhvC len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ipOUB len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - JeHZvurPXOKX len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - LPpcTmQjU len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ndcSaUR len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - nEtzZPoimB len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - OmHQNvBpZ len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - sQFblerrz len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - TLmgXybb len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - vCepEzyYd len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - VRxKPf len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - XdEGKRiHYp 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/ SST
' 00fd     10
... (truncated)