analyzing-macro-malware-in-office-documents

name	analyzing-macro-malware-in-office-documents
description	Analyzes malicious VBA macros embedded in Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) to identify download cradles, payload execution, persistence mechanisms, and anti-analysis techniques. Uses olevba, oledump, and VBA deobfuscation to extract the attack chain. Activates for requests involving Office macro analysis, VBA malware investigation, maldoc analysis, or document-based threat examination. . Use when working with analyzing macro malware in office documents.
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["malware","macro","Office","VBA","document-malware"]
subdomain	malware-analysis
version	1.0.0
author	oyi77
license	Apache-2.0
atlas_techniques	["AML.T0068","AML.T0067"]
d3fend_techniques	["File Metadata Consistency Validation","Application Protocol Command Analysis","Identifier Analysis","Content Format Conversion","Message Analysis"]
nist_csf	["DE.AE-02","RS.AN-03","ID.RA-01","DE.CM-01"]

Analyzing Macro Malware In Office Documents

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for analyzing macro malware in office documents. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "analyzing macro malware in office documents"

• "Analyzes malicious VBA macros embedded in Microsoft Office documents (Word, Exce"

• A suspicious Office document (.doc, .docm, .xls, .xlsm, .ppt) has been flagged by email security

• Investigating phishing campaigns that deliver weaponized Office documents

• Extracting VBA macro code to identify the payload download URL and execution method

• Analyzing obfuscated VBA code to understand the full attack chain

• Determining if a document uses DDE, ActiveX, or remote template injection instead of macros

Do not use for analyzing non-macro Office threats (DDE, remote template injection); while this skill covers detection of these, specialized analysis may be needed.

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+ with oletools installed (pip install oletools)
• oledump.py from Didier Stevens (https://blog.didierstevens.com/programs/oledump-py/)
• Isolated analysis VM without Microsoft Office installed (prevents accidental execution)
• XLMDeobfuscator for Excel 4.0 macro analysis (pip install xlmdeobfuscator)
• LibreOffice for safe document rendering (does not execute VBA macros by default)

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs() -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}