Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 380f686d1319345a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

81.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-06-24
MD5: a6c5ff52fd7f507fe133fecaf526e41f SHA-1: effec28dccdc48ea2f62a7d25df10668c024a269 SHA-256: 380f686d1319345a4fcf02f77097392d7fc45fc03b662c2162207da57799f553
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. ClamAV detection confirms this as an Emotet downloader. The macro uses dangerous formula APIs, including the RUN function, to likely download and execute a second-stage payload. The presence of multiple hidden sheets and the Auto_Open entry strongly indicate a malicious intent.

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-ea85817e7e81383e-9951566-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea85817e7e81383e-9951566-0
  • 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
64fb844da3b3b822d8edb5d10ade0c2ef622915b6d93a10de5e4cfd3aad7a229		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8675 bytes

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