Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 40263888047fe481…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

114.8 KB Created: 2022-01-24 14:50:55 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: d1d4f5f3c3b3e30b0e8ff7c53556961a SHA-1: 4c2fc2fa7b30b0f812d8cfa845f2ec2edc516186 SHA-256: 40263888047fe48150ee2d31bb4d0c43fa188301f2ffcf6e27a51e50edd53177
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The sample is identified as malicious by ClamAV with the signature Xls.Downloader.Emotet-bd646319c2d29cd6-9951195-0. Static analysis revealed the presence of Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening the document. The macro sheet contains dangerous formula APIs, including a RUN function, indicating an attempt to download and execute a second-stage payload.

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-bd646319c2d29cd6-9951195-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-bd646319c2d29cd6-9951195-0
  • 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
f65423032a2492710482664c048191ebe835ee4ace2752f1b0fa6e40d416cdf9
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 4885 bytes