Emotet — Office (OOXML) / .XLSM malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 45951f0f98c9d3eb…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

38.8 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2022-03-21
MD5: e8ea53b4ddf3a4c7fba6a5dd0d7ed541 SHA-1: fd0a061c8c212a1a8799add3c3b2328304c9110b SHA-256: 45951f0f98c9d3eb9c0ee7084d2e72ca47a9b7348913b8b42aca4d13aac900b4
250 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 PowerShell T1059.001 PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The file is an Excel macro-enabled spreadsheet (XLSM) containing Excel 4.0 macros. These macros utilize dangerous functions like FORMULA to download and execute payloads from a list of URLs. The ClamAV detection explicitly names this as an Emotet downloader. The reconstructed URL for the payload download is "pianistprodigy.com/demolms/Ax6ZgvEJJ8HEKfXrp/". The macros also attempt to execute "regsvr32.exe" from the SysWow64 directory.

Heuristics 6

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (2 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.
  • Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME
    Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
  • Dangerous XLM formula APIs: FORMULA critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.Emotet03221-9941790-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet03221-9941790-0
  • Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET
    Excel workbook contains 5 hidden sheet(s) — hidden sheets are commonly used to conceal macro code, staging data, or intermediate payload construction
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
    • http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3
    • http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.xml
a0c0f3e40bb0bcb71f69feab4a546d6971a6ad22d842de019237e043f0081a43		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml 1772 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.xml
2f8447d752b9aa82298eff83e8f17bd62a63f1ba62e6405681193f1dc7729f67		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml 4474 bytes

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