Emotet — Office (OOXML) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 3421588fe0ca7852…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

209.7 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300
MD5: 16c057268576e80de1aa00034db220d2 SHA-1: dc034fdd786e578aa09278f34fa8bc1c0a0ddf7b SHA-256: 3421588fe0ca7852b49d2283863b729b7c397a471af18fd082d20ea71fc4b5b2
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The sample is identified as malicious by ClamAV with the signature Xls.Downloader.Emotet-OOXML_XL. It contains multiple Excel 4.0 macro sheets, which are commonly used by Emotet to download and execute further stages. The presence of these macros indicates an attempt to execute arbitrary code, likely for payload delivery.

Heuristics 2

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (10 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks. The macro sheet is stored as XLSB/BIFF12 binary content, which many XML-only OOXML scanners miss.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-OOXML_XL-af43432fbcb8603c-9980048-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-OOXML_XL-af43432fbcb8603c-9980048-0

Extracted artifacts 10

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.bin
b61acd4a0ba88d71ebd2f7ca82aac4538464de57e07a65922adbeef70aed5bfe
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.bin 322 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.bin
c929e0ffc2d481eb90271cd964986076d70152a5c5fd9629096bc1151c2b24df
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.bin 2098 bytes
xlm_sheet_02.bin
ddf8c38436343a2d996409ef39489240366954d6174dd8f15141de974606208a
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.bin 477 bytes
xlm_sheet_03.bin
a4cd811ea720d6f722baa224d498100a798e02b5c1f0e61cf30c0ab935978dc9
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet3.bin 428 bytes
xlm_sheet_04.bin
fdec1aedb1e4cc5ee3493af09839c18556aa14fbc179a3983a1010909b8d797e
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet4.bin 428 bytes
xlm_sheet_05.bin
99f8734479ddf751c5bd12852de35f602e40a2e05ac3b4c1addcec9724732e71
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet5.bin 428 bytes
xlm_sheet_06.bin
581a5f87132a006224bc11cded0735021e50f91bd2b7153978b9964fa0d687c7
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet6.bin 428 bytes
xlm_sheet_07.bin
a3ed4f701357d62073358cd906b485928cccebcb079a4c8c16576c5860d5fd09
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet7.bin 428 bytes
xlm_sheet_08.bin
cd51dd2118c09dff4f9c6ee29c46887f3492a09764c24d75ce7fed4b524fec4c
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet8.bin 428 bytes
xlm_sheet_09.bin
c4f5626052d3e47097277530276280f0e5d823b34ed49f93a9e1f8be6cfd7381
xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet9.bin 348 bytes