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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 eea5d335bc460219…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

33.5 KB Created: 2020-12-02 15:21:50 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: eae561ba159fba903156511411ef96d7 SHA-1: 691926012c0adf08c004c8953639c087ad3f0f28 SHA-256: eea5d335bc4602195a73f8880a9dfc625e0a81d4878e84c08ca0d51d71e19df7
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious Link

The sample is an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro-enabled spreadsheet. It contains an Auto_Open macro, which is a common technique for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The document body text prompts the user to 'Enable Editing' and 'Enable Content', a typical lure for macro-based threats. The XLM macro sheet contains references to dangerous formula APIs, including the RUN function, indicating an attempt to execute arbitrary code. The specific sheet name 'cGtc' is also present.

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
a5b1fe9458c46f899417ec6ac82e41360e55d2e36a5fc93405cbc91729cedc35		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 3205 bytes

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