Analyzing Macro enabled Office Documents

Reverse Engineering

Malware Analysis

DFIR

Case Studies

Apr 13, 2024

Experience Level required: beginner

Objectives

In this blog we will Learn how to analyze MS Office Macro enabled Documents.

1st Sample

Let’s see the sample in Virus Total



37 of 63 security vendors detected this file as malicious.

Let’s open the file.



It uses a social engineering technique to persuade the user to enable the macros that lead to the infection of the user.

Let’s see the macro code of the sample, I’ll use olevba



It has many suspicious functions, It also has base64 strings



Let’s dump the macro code to a file to see it better

Let’s view the dumped file with notepad ++ (you can view it with any text editor software)



This function concatenates two strings, then reverses the result string and assigns it to Prefix3.



I’ll use this python script to reverse the string



Prefix3 =

Let’s go to the next function

The function concatenates 8 base64 encoded strings and assigns it to Prefix2.



I’ll use cyberchef to decode the strings



Prefix2 =

Let’s go to the next function



It concatenates strings

Prefix1 =

Let’s go to the last function



It concatenates Prefix1, Prefix3 and Prefix2 and print the result in a .bat file named “Bixkcozkkemqyslgmpvwuri.bat” then it runs the file

The resulted .bat file will be:

This script runs powershell script to download file from “hxxps[://]www[.]qqqformula[.]co[.]za/works/RICH[.]pif” to the current user’s AppData directory with name “Ktaqftbffhqhoxzyblssi.exe” and executes it.

2nd Sample

32 of 60 security vendors detected this file as malicious.



Let’s open the sample



It also employs a social engineering technique to convince the user to enable macros, which then leads to the user being infected.

Let’s see its macro code



It uses wscript language and base64 encoding

Let’s dump it to file



Let’s try to decode this strings



This powershell script is downloading a file from “hxxp[://]suyashcollegeofnursing[.]com” to temp directory with name “jfcbvept.exe” then it starts it

CreateObject(“Wscript.Shell”) return is assigned to zKShMevSa



So zKShMevSa acts like Wscript.Shell and zKShMevSa.Run = Wscript.Shell.Run.

It’s clear now Wscript.Shell.Run executes the powershell script that downloads the malware from “hxxp[://]suyashcollegeofnursing[.]com” to temp directory with name “jfcbvept.exe” then it executes it.

This blog is authored by Mostafa Farghaly(M4lcode).

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Live Training

Live Training

On-site Training

Virtual Labs

Exams

Do your courses include Certificate of Completion?

Do you offer corporate training or customized training solutions?

Do you offer law enforcement and military professionals discounts?

Do you offer student discounts?

What is the expected time commitment for each course?

Can I ask for help if I don’t understand something?

What are the general technical requirements?

How long will I have access to the course material?

How do I access my course after enrollment?

How do I purchase a course?

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Cyber5w

Stay ahead in DFIR!

Sign up for the latest findings, field advancements, and updates on upcoming webinars, conferences, seminars, and free courses.

©

2026

Cyber5w

Stay ahead in DFIR!

Sign up for the latest findings, field advancements, and updates on upcoming webinars, conferences, seminars, and free courses.

©

2026

Cyber5w