Malicious macro example. About Carbon Black TAU Excel 4 Macro …
Excel 4.
Malicious macro example This project extracts, preprocesses, and engineers features from VBA then trains SVM, KNN, and RF machine learning models and evaluates how effectively they can detect malicious macros. py [config] [output] (optional parameters) [config] Config file that contain generator information [output] Output filename for the macro -l --list List of all available payloads and evasion techniques -s --split_strings Randomly split strings at parts -x - Also, Macro Viruses can be transmitted through malicious links in advertisements or URLs, which, when clicked, install the virus to the user's device. For example, in 2017, MacDownloader, the first Word macro virus for Apple's macOS, was discovered. Code obfuscation was proposed as a method to prevent reverse analysis. bin) sounds interesting, so we . Let’s see how to create a malicious macro. In this post, we will discuss and analyze malicious documents and uncover hidden indicators of compromise (IOCs). This guide explores how macro viruses operate, their risks, and strategies for prevention. The malware was embedded in an MS Word file and when opened, would e-mail itself to the first 50 contacts in the victim’s address We will go through three common macro attack approaches and provide sample code to demonstrate how they function in this article. 0 Macros. 37 of 63 security vendors detected this file as malicious. This IT attack However, specialized malicious Office macro analysis tools, such as OLEVBA, have proven helpful in detecting and extracting embedded macro code from these files. This example will show how we can generate a macro onto a word Document send it to our user victim and gain a shell. macro_pack is a tool by @EmericNasi used to automatize obfuscation and generation of Office documents, VB scripts, shortcuts, and other formats for pentest, demo, and social engineering assessments. A tool for security researchers, who waste their time analyzing malicious Office macros. Example 1: Trickbot downloader - utilizes object Resize event as initial trigger, followed by TextBox_Change triggers. For example, the latest DFIR Report on the Bazar malware Insert Malicious Code: In the VBA editor, create a new module and insert the following sample code, which will download and execute a payload from a remote server: vba Copy code From 2020, there was a surge in threat actors using Excel 4. The manuscript contains the comparative analysis of performance of different machine learning methods in malicious office macros detection. Analysis Starting our analysis, let’s check the content of the sample by executing the following command: [Figure 2] The object 5 (word/vbaProject. Hide Rows Based on Values/Text In It Intro A few months ago, we published a blog post that examined the telemetry available through Office 365, including email visibility. 3 tools map analysis results with the common attack techniques known from the MITRE ATT&CK framework provide recommendations based on static analysis and attack techniques observed during the analysis process A common feature in all of the malicious documents Cisco Talos took apart is the existence of four non-malicious VBA subroutines. See more Types of malicious macros you’ll often encounter in modern malware. Microsoft has implemented several measures to defend against macro viruses, including the use of Anti-malware Scan Interface (AMSI) and automatic macro blocking. MacDownloader enabled hackers to use malicious macros in Word documents to install malware on Mac computers to steal Saved searches Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly contain a malicious macro that connects to a C2 server to download a binary for further system infection. Malicious Macro Generator v2. This week, we will introduce the IT attack scenario [ Malicious Macro and Backdoor Trojan Attack on IT-network ], which serves as the entry point for the subsequent OT system attack. As it turns out, Office 2010, 2013, and Office Fortinet customers are protected from these malicious files and malware by FortiGuard Antivirus, which is included in FortiMail. As with other file-based malware, malicious macros (which are essentially code-files embedded in an Office file) can be detected and signed by Cynet’s products. In legitimate . Melissa. Emotet is a Trojan that is primarily spread through spam emails. For the demonstration purposes, you can use msfvenom to create a first stage malware binary as follows, MMG. I made a blog post over a year ago where I talked about a technique I haven’t seen used If you read reports regarding ransomware intrusions, they indicate that the common theme among them is a phishing attempt, using a malicious macro document. When the e-mail flow is examined, it is seen that there is a suspicious Office file. In particular, VBA macros allow leveraging kernel functions and system routines to execute or remotely drop malicious payloads, and they are typically heavily obfuscated to make static analysis unfeasible. com Usage: MMG. For When Excel opens a malicious file with an unsigned macro, the macros will be silently blocked. olevba is a script to parse OLE and OpenXML files such as MS Office documents (e. 2. exe. 0 macros (XLM). To analyze 🕵️♂️ VBA macro code, we utilize the de-obfuscation and reveal feature of Now before I get into the Macro Example and give you the VBA code, let me first show you how to use these example codes. For the demonstration purposes, you can use msfvenom to create a first stage malware binary as Hello everyone ,after my last posts about how hackers can get control of victim’s computer using a word document with malicious macro code ,now is a time to see what can we do with a suspicious file Introduction Over this past winter break, I wanted to go back to learning more about malicious Word/Excel Macros and what the potential is there. However, there have been reports of evasion attacks against machine learning-based malware detectors. Malicious document files are really popular nowadays. We can create a malicious macro using MS Word which leads to create a doc file contain our malicious code, if any user open Introduction Over this past winter break, I wanted to go back to learning more about malicious Word/Excel Macros and what the potential is there. ac This Melissa variant attempts to format local hard drives and corrupts CMOS memory, - Selection from Malicious Mobile Code [Book] A Macro is a pre-defined sequence of automated input, designed to streamline repetitive tasks. Generates Malicious Macro and Execute Powershell or Shellcode via MSBuild Application Whitelisting Bypass, this tool intended for adversary simulation and red teaming purpose. How to go from finding an obfuscated macro in a maldoc to fully understanding what it AMSI logs the macro behavior, triggers a scan by the security product when suspicious functions are called, and stops macro execution when malicious activity is detected by the security product. I can't find any more focused settings in the Windows virus software that allows we to switch off scanning of macros in the AMSI, for example. I will be using NISHANG a very well Threat actors use malicious macros to bypass security controls, like allow lists, and gain access to your systems and network. Un1k0d3r mr. When this VBA This is a project created to make it easier for malware analysts to find virus samples for analysis, research, reverse engineering, or review. As a result, phishing emails continue to apply malicious macros as their essential attack on embedded malicious executable files or shellcodes, and do not detect malicious macros. This can be blocked with the security settings. . 0 macro execution. Steps to add VBA macro in “Visual Basic for Applications” (VBA) is a programming language used to extend Microsoft documents’ functionality [3]. Blacklisted APIs such as Create and SpawnInstance are one Template file injection attacks are based on having the victim open a document and clicking “Enable content” to execute the malicious macro. EXE. W97M. A typical ViperMonkey run should result in the likes of Figure 1 as it starts parsing. docm and run it! For malicious execution POC, you with . Malware authors use VBA to implement their You signed in with another tab or window. An example of a macro virus is the Example of malicious VBA macros. g. Let’s open the file. exe” End Sub The versatility and expressiveness of VBA is what attracts attackers to use macros as a component in the infection Macro-based Office files have been extensively used as infection vectors to embed malware. However, macro malware uses this functionality to infect your device. Run "notepad" End Sub. Typically, attackers use these files to infiltrate and compromise endpoints and networks. Nevertheless, evidence shows that threat actors have found ways to bypass these mechanisms. Previous research has focused on these evasion attacks, Write our malicious macro code, for example: Private Sub Document_Open() Test End Sub Private Sub Test() Shell ("cmd /c calc. Contribute to k4sth4/Creating-a-Malicious-doc development by creating an account on GitHub. 2023, 13, 12101 2 of 15 benign or malicious macros, resulting in numerous false positives in detection [2]. A sample shared by nao_sec that abusing ms-msdt to execute Appl. This paper provides more reliable results with thousands of dis- 1st Sample. Furthermore, the maldoc seems to elevate privilege (AdjustPrivilege( )), hook (intercept events) by If you read reports regarding ransomware intrusions, they indicate that the common theme among them is a phishing attempt, using a malicious macro document. exe with a parent process of WINWORD. Switching off the whole virus protection functionality doesn't feel Current research concentrate on detecting malicious macros by examining macro obfuscation and suspicious keywords such as strings and functions. By applying basic social engineering techniques, threat actors can share documents containing malicious macros (or encrypted When submitting a sample into VT dynamic analysis automatically occurs from InQuest labs, the clean sample submitted was flagged as malicious due to the use of excel 4. Generates a VBA call graph, with potential malicious keywords highlighted. The latter Obtaining Macro Source Code. First the filename is stored in a variable, opened using Open statement and stored in #1, and then the command cmd /c mkdir “”C:\\Users\\Public\\tmpdir is put into that For example, a macro might be created to automatically format text entered within specific cells in an Excel spreadsheet, or it might be used to create formulas that change based on certain evolving input criteria. In the “Macros” window name, the macro as “AutoOpen” then select the “New Microsoft Word Document. Macro malware hides in Microsoft Office files and is delivered as email attachments or inside ZIP files. This repository is intended to provide access to a wide variety of malicious files and other artifacts. MS-MSDT scheme aka Follina Exploit. Table of These macros all called malicious macros or macro malware or macro virus. py [config] [output] (optional parameters) [config] Config file that contain generator information [output] Output filename for the macro -l --list List of all available payloads and evasion techniques -s --split_strings Randomly split strings at parts -x - We will start by creating a Word Macro . There are two main attack techniques when it comes to document-based malware: ex-ploits and VBA macros, with the latter applied in the vast majority of threats. Our method represents feature vectors from samples were only 40 malicious and 118 benign MS Office files. AMSI has proven to be a Simple utility design to generate obfuscated macro that also include a AV / Sandboxes escape mechanism. These models extract features from malware and classify them as benign or malicious. [config] Config file that contain generator information. If you read the blog and thought to yourself, I wish that I could get more comprehensive email visibility, beyond just the basic meta-data, then the Splunk Microsoft O365 Reviewing the extract files, such as OneNoteAttachments folder shows the batch file that contains a malicious payload. For the time of writing the majority of tools call back using a powershell shell. In legitimate. Here are the steps you need to follow to use the code from any of Macro viruses are malicious code embedded in documents that exploit macro capabilities. Although Microsoft have added multiple security features in an attempt to protect users against malicious macros, such protections are Hi readers, here we will be looking into creating malicious word documents with the intent of running system commands using macro functionality. Disclaimer MaliciousMacroMSBuild should be In recent years, various methods have been proposed to detect unknown malware using machine learning models. Deliver a new avenue for threat intelligence, a way to group similar malicious office documents together to identify phishing campaigns and There is a embedded macro in the maldoc. Code obfuscation was proposed as a preventi ve reverse ana lysis method. doc or . MITRE ATT&CK reference . Setup. The Melissa virus was written in the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro language and was spread Malicious Office Macro Detection: Combined Features with Obfuscation and Suspicious Keywords Xiang Chen, Wenbo Wang and Weitao Han * Institute of Information Technology, PLA Strategic Support Provide a powerful malicious file triage tool for cyber responders. Let’s see the sample in Virus Total. However, if the settings are Macros are a powerful way to automate common tasks in Microsoft Office and can make people more productive. It detects all malicious macro file types, Rubella is designed to produce malicious Office and Excel files designed to trick recipients into letting embedded macros execute. The following example macro attempts to execute when the document initially opens. Word, Excel), to detect VBA Macros, extract their source code in clear text, and detect security-related On 14 November 2021, new Emotet samples emerged that were very similar to the previous bot code, but with a different encryption scheme that used elliptic curve cryptography for command and control communications. Macro_SimpleExample_2. What’s a Malicious Macro? Macro malware – also known as macro viruses – take advantage of the VBA programming in Microsoft Office macros to surreptitiously inject a user’s system with One memorable example of a macro-malware is the Melissa virus, which first appeared in 1999. These macros can be used to execute malicious content and steal or destroy sensitive information. Analyzing ursnif macro, we will detonate by Congrats on creating your malicious Excel macro which downloads the actual malware and executes it when user opens the excel document. Some sample use a macro that drops Here’s a simple example of how to display a message box with a simple message: Sub ShowMessageBox() ' MsgBox function to show a message box with specified text MsgBox "This is a Message Box" End Sub. py: Generate malicious macros using different techniques for MS Office and Libreoffice [-h] [-l HOST] [-p PORT] [-r RSHELL_PATH] options: -h, --help show this help message and exit -l HOST, The first sample, a Word doc with malicious macros disguised as a Citi Bank document, yielded immediately interesting results. Below is the sample VBA code for automatically opening notepad. A malicious office macro generation script written in python to help aid in OSCP studies. Dataset2 comprises 2885 new Though some document types are present only as malicious ones (for example, ppt 5, pptx 5, and others 107), the VBA macros in these type of documents have no difference. Depending on the security settings of Microsoft Word, victims may need to explicitly Malicious macro warning issues Hi - I am building an energy system model that is using a combination of VBA and Python (Pyomo). The below is an example of a detection rule created using Yara rule. This is best suited for penetration testing scenarios where we need to social engineer the targets. If you found this useful, consider liking and following then subscribing. Macros use VBS for macros, so it’s not hard to make them, but many are already made In the latest installment of "Uncompromised," a member of Red Canary's incident handling team analyzes a malicious Excel macro from a red team engagement. As part of our continued efforts to tackle entire classes of threats, Office 365 client applications now integrate with Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI), enabling antivirus and other security solutions to scan macros and other scripts at Now that I have covered some basic VBA macro examples, let me give you some useful macro codes involving cells. I made a blog post over a year ago where I talked about a technique I haven’t seen used very often involving linking a remote VBA template to a word doc, Creating a Malicious Macro using MS Word . Our method on the other hand, detects malicious macros. We encountered a number of samples that use octal and hexadecimal versions of the C2 addresses to obfuscate samples from basic string based static analysis and evade detection. What is an Example of a Macro Virus? An example of a macro virus is the Melissa virus, which was first discovered in 1999. 1. One of the employees has received a suspicious document attached in the email. - rbearden/macro-malware-detection-with-ml. Recently, Fortinet spotted a malicious document macro designed to bypass Malicious macros tend to contain typical functions to download or execute the main body, and obfuscated strings such as encoded or divided characters. docm — file containing example saved in the newest Office format dedicated for MS Word documents with macros. Creating Malicious Word Macros Tutorial Step 1: Create a payload. 4. It's like a set of instructions that you can create and then run whenever you need to perform those tasks again. exe") End Sub Save the document as . un1k0d3r@gmail. xlsm) Congrats on creating your malicious Excel macro which downloads the actual malware and executes it when user opens the excel document. (Source: Flashpoint) Usage: macro-generator. It uses a social engineering technique to persuade the Macro malware is a strain of malware found in VBA macros in Microsoft Office files. 2 VBA macro There are a few methods to detect malicious macros. [output] Output filename for the macro. What hackers can do with macros and how they use them: our experience. Comment 2. In this part we are going to Macro_SimpleExample_2. The new Example of malicious VBA macros. I used the awesome tool olevba, a part of the oletools project, that allows you to query VBA macro source code directly from the malicious file on a *nix system using Inspecting for VBA macros and other information, it is evident that the file contains VBA macros. How macro malware works. For example, a macro may be deemed malicious if it: This Word document will contain a macro code which is a malicious Visual Basic Script and provides us with a meterpreter session. shell") Shell. Reload to refresh your session. Bearden Save as Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (. You signed out in another tab or window. MMG. doc — file containing example saved in the old Office format. Both methods have limitations. For this we will be using a tool that is here. In 2022 — the year the policy change took effect Malicious macro are often used as a vector to download malware on the target machine and create persistence to give attackers access to the target, move laterally, compromise the whole network and/or exfiltrate information. Obfuscation of VBA Macro. Obfuscation of VBA Macro . Other Common Methods of Spread Include: a) Sharing infected files over a network This is a very basic example of how malicious macros can be used to exploit Office 365 applications like Word and these can even extended to other Office applications. Office 2010, 2013, and 2016 Revisited. 0. Malware can be tricky to find, much less having a solid understanding of all the possible places Macro Virus Examples Here are some representative sample descriptions that demonstrate the versatility of macro viruses. - GitHub - Sic4rio/Malicious-Office-Macro-Generator: A malicious office macro generation script written in python to help aid in OSCP studies. Threat actors have taken advantage of documents by using macros to conduct malicious practices. The goal of macro For example, the following macro is triggered when the (Word) document is opened, and executes a command that runs calc. exe: Sub Document_Open() Shell “calc. Using the Code from Excel Macro Examples. Analyzing the malicious document Given the output above (Figure 1), we could try to make an assumption that the dropped executable comes from the own maldoc because Microsoft Office “loads VBA resource, possible macro or embedded object present”. In this method, if an Excel file is stored in a PDF file, a warning screen is displayed when Excel starts up To survive, Macro downloaders have to constantly develop new techniques for evading sandbox environments and anti-virus applications. 0 - RingZer0 Team Author: Mr. Sub AutoOpen() Dim Shell As Object Set Shell = CreateObject("wscript. docx (document)” option from the drop-down menu, and click on As we know that how important documents are in a company. 2. situations, macros are typically obfuscated to In 2021, the year of Microsoft's announcement, researchers from Proofpoint tracked well beyond a thousand malicious campaigns utilizing macros. The infection may arrive either via malicious script, macro-enabled document files, or malicious link. rows, or columns that you can use in your day-to-day work. Help fill existing detection gaps for malicious office documents, which are still a very prevalent attack vector today. So, for example, when a malicious macro embedded in a Word document is used to run a PowerShell command, a process creation event will exist for powershell. About Carbon Black TAU Excel 4 Macro Excel 4. It is commonly employed in software applications such as Microsoft Excel and Word to automate routine keyboard and mouse activities, thereby enhancing macros remain a preferred choice for malware authors. These subroutines appeared in all the samples and were not obfuscated. Macros can be used for malicious purposes, such as installing a virus, recording key-strokes, etc. XLM macros are the predecessor to VBA macros and were introduced in Excel 4. You switched accounts on another tab or window. 2 Malicious sample conduct static analysis of a malicious macro-based document by using open-source . XLM clear code example. Sci. 3. Phishing attempts often use malicious macros in the attached files of their messages, disguised as legitimate attachments. Our method was evaluated using two datasets, dataset1 was a public dataset containing 2939 benign samples and 13734 malicious samples. cmcsiwfbkyevcsfoajrirdjmzqfptshucesdwdjmsjvdzwuqheeshpmsipuyujtyftofyt