Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 182a584e336ad66f…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

80.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-19
MD5: 3860f9ae3ac20b34505cd0783dae29a0 SHA-1: 5173d04e3eec3e6300e099cb45e11d75e94cd566 SHA-256: 182a584e336ad66f0013091d4958702c4abc83f3d02156d535c24410c57ba484
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro that utilizes dangerous functions. This macro is designed to download a payload from one of the provided URLs. ClamAV detection further confirms its malicious nature, identifying it as an Emotet downloader.

Heuristics 4

  • 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.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea85857e7e81817a-9950241-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea85857e7e81817a-9950241-0
  • 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
2713008372e4a8d63b02de009c5a65af10bd91dc204ffc8bb4109bebe7732d4f		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 7892 bytes

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