Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 18e6aa0dd7e7cdfd…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

73.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-18
MD5: c9a43aec0ee98a562b05fbad788c6556 SHA-1: 730d448ec50407fd6b43e4e4a01576be0c4bc3b6 SHA-256: 18e6aa0dd7e7cdfd3f937dac0d917ee9dec0e6a20a4d5ef24c47a45cf53c9862
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open entry, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The macros are designed to download a second-stage payload from several hardcoded URLs. ClamAV also identified this file as Emotet, a known downloader family.

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
fdb09a1b61b705eb475721fb55c8ce0007c73c3d7d79d9138daf058de3e5ad8a		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6827 bytes

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