Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1cc849f91a248a93…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

94.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-07-01
MD5: 5b338e1391648bb885de159fea4c009a SHA-1: f3acfd1002f6b76472eeeeaece05f01b157d7509 SHA-256: 1cc849f91a248a93d8380cfbdfb30fe3c8bb9f43fdd6aae38da8ebcbfd0cda23
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The sample is an Excel file containing Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function. This function is known to be used for executing arbitrary code, and ClamAV detection identifies it as an Emotet downloader. The macro's use of dangerous API functions like RUN further supports its malicious intent to download and execute a payload.

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-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0
  • 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
c9544456b7436f5e30a009f024bb63e412367291fdf7caae39c3bc27fc1c7d29		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8133 bytes

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