Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 3ce617ed4d5a78ba…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

142.5 KB Created: 2022-01-19 09:31:16 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: cc6a5eca7b9c5260fe8f8342db014443 SHA-1: 6d227eb212e4066cb913848b2a4b05752dfc7332 SHA-256: 3ce617ed4d5a78ba123d6463b4c0c6b8e7ea29f0800761e9559c8bf182f21afe
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1566.002 Spearphishing Attachment T1059.005 Visual Basic

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a critical indicator of malicious intent. ClamAV detection further confirms this, identifying it as 'Doc.Downloader.EmotetExcel01220-9936774-0', a known Emotet variant. The macro sheet is designed to execute automatically when the workbook is opened, a common technique for downloading and executing further stages of malware. The document body, while appearing benign as a blood pressure tracker, serves as a lure.

Heuristics 3

  • 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.
  • ClamAV: Doc.Downloader.EmotetExcel01220-9936774-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.EmotetExcel01220-9936774-0
  • 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
592af8991900f2f7058dc7ea90a33320ae293c7e541db4222a7b7f9c04f59d96
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8469 bytes