Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2a3a9f34754ac1e6…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

50.5 KB Created: 2022-04-01 07:14:19 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-04-01
MD5: 0591ce4eb656d52273c3b88236fd242a SHA-1: 4a176873b82944703a344044d95ad46d70b79702 SHA-256: 2a3a9f34754ac1e674a6cdc1f6a5a0d7ebfba0ec5d2ccddd469aac7adfc4182a
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious Link/Object: Malicious File T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro that utilizes dangerous functions like RUN. The macros construct URLs by concatenating strings, such as 'http://heijtse.com/wp-content/vIboiEZPbqTvF10Z9/', and also attempt to execute 'regsvr32.exe'. This indicates the file's purpose is to download and execute a second-stage payload, consistent with Emotet's typical behavior.

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: Doc.Downloader.Emotet04220-9942582-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.Emotet04220-9942582-0
  • 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
5916f679082efc18ea64a7b5dff941d98d6004f291cc57a7a9b206d7b455d7c5		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 7323 bytes

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