Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 39d9a8bd10ce0586…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

63.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-06-15
MD5: 6985503a115c09acdfd2eda0c5e7aedf SHA-1: 7fe7712f128d76b6672fb8d6e36be1adde4418f4 SHA-256: 39d9a8bd10ce05862026bf56661d60d506b0e33dfbf83600d96995f932f71de5
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet containing an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening. The macro sheet contains concatenated strings that form URLs, indicating a downloader functionality. ClamAV detection further confirms its malicious nature, identifying it as Emotet. The script's intent is to download and execute a second-stage payload from the provided URLs.

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-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0
  • 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
81a890043a2bf9bada66e5f829f683706b013cf3d1f82e11ea536e934629d60f
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8316 bytes