Emotet — Office (OOXML) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 5b5f82b8d45b6737…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

2.69 MB Created: 2021-05-07 10:35:36 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 15.0300
MD5: 28728a0d841665bb0a201d82e9634ef2 SHA-1: 9faf04508a63603fe99401ca51098d7eb64f497e SHA-256: 5b5f82b8d45b6737cc0241564fa1292ff45e8503866a3d430e7fa3ced1881af1
370 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer T1204.002 Malicious File T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The sample contains a Workbook_Open VBA macro that utilizes CreateObject to download a file from a URL and execute it. The macro's logic strongly suggests it's designed to fetch and run a second-stage payload, consistent with Emotet downloader behavior. The presence of multiple suspicious URLs and the critical heuristic for HTTP download and execution confirm this malicious intent.

Heuristics 10

  • VBA downloads and writes a file to disk critical OLE_VBA_HTTP_DROP_EXEC
    VBA reads an HTTP response body and writes it to disk (ADODB.Stream SaveToFile). Combined with the auto-exec/Shell paths this is a download-drop dropper even when the COM ProgIDs are built dynamically to evade keyword scanning.
  • ClamAV: Doc.Downloader.Emotet-10019767-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.Emotet-10019767-0
  • ClamAV detection on extracted artifact critical EXTRACTED_FILE_CLAMAV
    ClamAV flagged at least one file extracted from inside this sample. Even when the wrapping document carries no AV detection of its own, a hit on the carved artifact is a strong indicator the sample is a delivery vehicle.
  • Workbook_Open macro high OLE_VBA_WBOPEN
    Workbook_Open macro
  • CreateObject call high OLE_VBA_CREATEOBJ
    CreateObject call
  • VBA p-code auto-exec with execution tokens high OLE_VBA_PCODE_AUTOEXEC_EXEC
    Compiled VBA/cache stream contains an auto-execution token together with shell/download/object-execution tokens. This catches p-code-only or source-extraction-failure macro documents where visible source is unavailable.
  • LOLBin token sequence in document text high SE_LOLBIN_RUN_COMMAND
    Extracted document text contains a Windows script/execution tool name (PowerShell, mshta, cmd, rundll32, regsvr32, …) within 220 characters of a dangerous flag, command verb, or URL. This is a visible 'run this' instruction in HTML/PDF/RTF lure bodies, or — in macro-laden Office files — the macro's own string-pool entries appearing adjacent in extracted text.
  • VBA project inside OOXML medium OOXML_VBA
    Document contains a VBA project — VBA macros present
  • Environ() call (env variable access) low OLE_VBA_ENVIRON
    Environ() call (env variable access)
  • 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 https://radiouranio.com/player_radio/jquery.lightbox/js/lightbox/themes/zagDA4cqUZOj.php
    • https://kpleads.com/kpleads.ali/wp/wp-includes/js/codemirror/FA0MND35N.php
    • https://gulfbeautygt.com/images/byaLcZQlkP5.php
    • https://www.imvula.org/wp-content/plugins/duplicator/installer/build/grxZuQhswdAh.php
    • https://multigranos.com.bo/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce/i18n/languages/xRrL7GcQN0.php
    • https://smarttechbv.com.br/wp-content/plugins/wp-fastest-cache/css/fonts/5kbCoM4jSnAI.php
    • https://raufsana.com/ls-panel/ckeditor/plugins/magicline/images/wU1DtAWj6.php
    • https://arfresa.com/globospayasoperu.com/web/wp-content/et-cache/178/088bWm9bjVQJe.php
    • https://grupoakrabu.com/img/galeria/JUzw6w6kn0.php

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
macros.bas
d52df73e079d24c7341c9fcbd5a7d1cd80f3b4d859c4b0736463b07b4f3d8638		 vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source from OOXML) 1965976 bytes
vbaProject_00.bin
8be796acc5f91875fabab86bced3241bad4bab9b0983860262760ad202413ae0		 vba-project OOXML VBA project: xl/vbaProject.bin 4024832 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: Doc.Downloader.Emotet-10019767-0
Obfuscation or payload: unlikely

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