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

Static analysis result for SHA-256 f727865354c39e2a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

41.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:17:20 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: ce47e07d09fb6eb60e70423f5302b123 SHA-1: db5e2869362138b5d877e5779924407dbf23380f SHA-256: f727865354c39e2a89a592c7e33ec55e1aa2cfd0891f200ffba07d6e53a30b06
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet. Heuristics indicate the presence of an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical indicator for automatic execution upon opening. The macro sheet also contains dangerous formula APIs, specifically the RUN function, which is used to execute arbitrary code. This suggests the file is designed to deliver a second-stage payload when opened.

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
4957d1ac4d2c5f836b86e36a2749eaae1786308f0714ab12da35239f66b46cc4		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8185 bytes

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