Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 4ab1b20329731de0…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

55.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-06-27
MD5: 28a424e12c4bfb20eab8172706a65754 SHA-1: 592784dfaf56cdce9c5f59ae648b91094e0dcf55 SHA-256: 4ab1b20329731de02e1430abdf783e661638f88622431fbce7e31425ed8cfbe5
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The macro constructs and attempts to download a payload from the URL 'http://ora.eas.tm/p/vi98YEQq/'. This behavior is consistent with Emotet downloader activity.

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-aa87d5786a858772-9953435-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-aa87d5786a858772-9953435-0
  • 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
8a1b85527405f075bb91c56ecfcdd451eb9c43d1e0bc4e5b91a53261cb41b850		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8028 bytes

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