Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 1ccf45cc053ba5dc…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

115.6 KB Created: 2022-01-24 20:48:09 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: ea02c2951f948356eb48529731ed519f SHA-1: 415d3e64ff1407a7c4dddb3f2ba274aa90b9c3bc SHA-256: 1ccf45cc053ba5dcea09ceba4a03261cc1c3d22b9b99cf2d087c32d4d7d885ec
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

This Excel file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for malware execution. ClamAV identified the file as 'Xls.Downloader.Emotet-bd646319c2d29cd6-9951195-0', strongly suggesting it's an Emotet downloader. The macro's use of dangerous functions like RUN indicates it's designed to download and execute a second-stage 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-bd646319c2d29cd6-9951195-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-bd646319c2d29cd6-9951195-0
  • 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
5a0137a4ff8036cfa03ad914b464e95f104474d870faad94ec8edd89262cb0e9		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 5174 bytes

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