Office (OOXML) / .XLSX malware analysis — malicious · f93bbad433e1d9c7

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

158.3 KB Created: 2006-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300

MD5: bc9133487674ebf1915083a482eea7f5 SHA-1: b76bc55c9a13965cc7c27352e45f09e06da5c884 SHA-256: f93bbad433e1d9c7a871e3186aa7ee41b5e5f9fc793cf1088fc0fb9782a95e57

190 Risk Score

Malware Insights

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.005 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell T1059.003 Windows Command Shell T1059.004 Python T1059.006 Python

The sample contains multiple Excel 4.0 macro sheets, with critical heuristics indicating the use of dangerous functions like FORMULA, HALT, and FORMULA.FILL. These functions are known to be used for downloading and executing payloads. The macro sheet 'xlm_sheet_01.xml' contains a FORMULA.FILL function that concatenates strings from other cells, likely to construct a URL. Two suspicious URLs were extracted: https://biopaten.no/xeBP8Oj5/gg.html and https://beartoothkawasaki.com/QJT19jhtwHt/gg.html, which are likely used to host the second-stage payload.

Heuristics 5

Excel 4.0 macro sheet (5 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET

Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME

Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
Dangerous XLM formula APIs: FORMULA, HALT, FORMULA.FILL critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN

Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET

Excel workbook contains 1 hidden sheet(s) — hidden sheets are commonly used to conceal macro code, staging data, or intermediate payload construction
Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL

One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
URL https://biopaten.no/xeBP8Oj5/gg.html
- https://beartoothkawasaki.com/QJT19jhtwHt/gg.html
- http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
- http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
- http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6

Extracted artifacts 5

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`xlm_sheet_00.xml` `15fbfe55b20413f92e6ae6dcaa5199ef4834995471413702ff1b1894f486343d`	xlm-macrosheet	OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml	11346 bytes
`xlm_sheet_01.xml` `01be081374433318ab060c7d9534b134366d414e43d756214d58deb1a7557a22`	xlm-macrosheet	OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet2.xml	1807 bytes
`xlm_sheet_02.xml` `4942d78e9a4c26c9352582ba044fbdd7b5e434ac67308d3cb59b8725b48e9b99`	xlm-macrosheet	OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet3.xml	1777 bytes
`xlm_sheet_03.xml` `a6863ce46a6a991745232b05bc1b5af380056ae05155ba24221669ae920dc1d9`	xlm-macrosheet	OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet4.xml	1460 bytes
`xlm_sheet_04.xml` `7a65a9a19541a783d2364e0cc237ab353fd49b12ac69aaaae5e6996c7d787d37`	xlm-macrosheet	OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet5.xml	1558 bytes

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