Malicious Office (OLE) — malware analysis report

Static analysis result for SHA-256 fedbf8a9bb372af3…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE)

36.0 KB Created: 2020-11-25 10:45:54 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 119ba05b8ae1aecca328267563d746b1 SHA-1: 5b6fca7302acbbed3321f59f7b77a9116b716918 SHA-256: fedbf8a9bb372af3505f294a58e721ab8a9f0be98c7f16903555700794b4bc22
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The presence of dangerous formula APIs in the Auto_Open macro indicates an intent to run arbitrary commands. While the specific payload is not detailed, the mechanism points to a macro-based execution of a second-stage payload.

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
8980e558f27fedaa19a41b8685523d9fa3850293855c686fd9b1091b1b1f7fee		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6609 bytes

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