Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 fe6ae176898bb14c…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-27 11:40:24 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2021-09-18
MD5: d8ff9743d9ca76b3fdeb74f5400e65a5 SHA-1: a1971c29c7d8ae4d71867e42e1582fefbb5ce075 SHA-256: fe6ae176898bb14c1a9802440f98cfc7d196322fa31330c2b883786f15a0b968
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled workbook containing an Auto_Open defined name, which is a common technique for executing malicious code upon opening. The critical heuristic firings indicate the presence of dangerous formula APIs within the Auto_Open macro, suggesting an attempt to execute arbitrary commands or download further payloads. No specific family could be identified, and no direct IOCs like URLs or hashes were extracted from the macro content itself.

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) 6688 bytes
SHA-256: 0ecfa76204d26b777ba6defdac96c8f0b0140c4dabd1407095f5210d070686d9
Preview script
First 1,000 lines of the extracted script
' 0085     14 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - worksheet or dialog sheet, visible -  Sheet
' 0085     16 BOUNDSHEET : Sheet Information - Excel 4.0 macro sheet, visible -  GopQkVK
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - AbWUCQwx len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - built-in-name 1 Auto_Open len=7 ptgRef3d  Sheet!G160 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - cgaFXB len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - dBpOfL len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - DHJTOYWS len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - dZxSAXhJTHt len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - fimAx len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - fxpif len=0 
' 0018     21 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - IrWqBc len=0 
' 0018     26 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - keNDYfZzzGf len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - ngjwTmnX len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - nzlmL len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - PbEcIImqF len=0 
' 0018     20 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - tFfXD len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - tJHkSxdUJ len=0 
' 0018     22 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - uFLXClI len=0 
' 0018     23 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - vGgiODKW len=0 
' 0018     24 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - XLupVgbTX len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - xMVqQJfuin len=0 
' 0018     25 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - yBijphoxMw len=0 
' 0018     27 LABEL : Cell Value, String Constant - YBUwHIuhgglI 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 LABELSS
... (truncated)

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.