Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 f692172a8d47ffbc…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

960.5 KB Created: 2020-06-30 14:47:25 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2020-07-24
MD5: f830f498497ef02797ebc0c1f152d98d SHA-1: 9b71b07d8e272fe377c751dcb0425d39fdb1513d SHA-256: f692172a8d47ffbce49f1dd782a72566d6ca5d3583fe0591e71816e2bfa30410
160 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro sheet that uses an Auto_Open macro for execution. It employs environment evasion techniques and includes a lure to trick users into enabling macros. The document body contains a message suggesting it is protected and requires content to be enabled, which is a common social engineering tactic.

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 environment-evasion close gate critical OLE_XLM_ENVIRONMENT_EVASION_CLOSE
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet auto-executes environment checks with GET.WORKSPACE / GET.WINDOW, then shows a fake corruption/error message and closes the workbook when the host fails those checks. This is a malware sandbox-evasion pattern, even when the later payload stage is hidden behind obfuscated defined-name flow.
  • 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 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 106220 bytes
SHA-256: b8a72f3cc6b53a7e58adb99c9331d98d727af5104d8190ec45b2b8c3151bfc08
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     17 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, hidden -  CxmHwnCM
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet
' 0085     23 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  yHvbXXWaMSZqRQ
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet1
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet2
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet2
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet2
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet2
' 0085     15 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, hidden -  Sheet2
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  CxmHwnCM!BR59546 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - bNoLXlTkW len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - bQvrrq len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - CDBGdjqVi len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - CMSOaq len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - cMtwRtxMW len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - cyVtlh len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - CZrRr len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - DKMVsn len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - eDgLuqf len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - EETXaSqGy len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - efdiGNUy len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - eTyuuty len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - fNPkNRfp len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - foMtWm len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - FRsNrQiI len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - GMIUXlH len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - GNUkL len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - GYVrbm len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - gztjPYY len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hhwBEuUj len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - htWpVsLX len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - hxCEv len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - IhITNf len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - IHXbdVuKC len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - IitnGDZ len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value,
... (truncated)