Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 53cadf084b51776d…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

95.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-07-01
MD5: efdd17ab6ebe0267fc7120c9066cd79e SHA-1: 912e23ac2c0c332eaea73abc16c06f8fb9758218 SHA-256: 53cadf084b51776d694a1ef2918e08a18bd7e953b0b9d93297f552193e035510
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The sample is an Excel 4.0 spreadsheet containing an Auto_Open macro, a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening. Heuristics indicate the use of dangerous formula APIs like RUN, strongly suggesting it acts as a downloader. ClamAV detection confirms this, identifying it as Emotet.

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-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0
  • 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
0d37a7c2b5e923172d999d2ec31f2bbd453cb45762a6edabf53ec8e118ee7846		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8129 bytes

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