Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 492c76ffd310044a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

70.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-04-29
MD5: 20bd9bb05f5f4ee63e615c8c0ec47708 SHA-1: 1b1910c4b53b4036ff579e5ce04c6f5296c592e1 SHA-256: 492c76ffd310044aca669706931b948254c24149fd1864c564835b11a4e45266
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious File T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for initial execution. The macro is designed to download and execute a payload from one of the provided URLs. ClamAV detection further confirms its malicious nature, identifying it as Emotet. The macro uses dangerous functions like RUN, indicating it's intended to execute downloaded content.

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-b3c5cc3b13c03bcc-9950246-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-b3c5cc3b13c03bcc-9950246-0
  • 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
023eece581745d86e8a881663e496cab25dc20dc1e2c24ba47f1be10064b9c6f		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6827 bytes

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