Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 2bd7596695f7c626…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

143.0 KB Created: 2022-01-26 02:21:30 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 89beb455087d12c8d0d49c83afa645d3 SHA-1: 1d46efc6e317e6ca28527970c976a3b183d58990 SHA-256: 2bd7596695f7c62623a4653ccf39b0af108ab151b78611f9b81c451c5a74ee47
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The critical heuristics indicate the presence of Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function that utilizes dangerous API calls like RUN. ClamAV detection explicitly names this as an Emotet downloader. The macro sheet is configured to automatically execute upon opening, likely 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
46284ea41c691066b9fe85a87bc7e9bfc77336182ea3b4ed700574b0c8cd3189		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 3141 bytes

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