Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 5d63eb668503e4c0…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

143.8 KB Created: 2022-01-26 02:21:30 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 9fa443892f6121ba31b8567a5e984ade SHA-1: 12fd3b338d6ad8a9e01aa47c861c97f3bb2bff93 SHA-256: 5d63eb668503e4c015b52f8c4c48ba1bcb490475b9d6441b0b407c3e76ef3961
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The file is an Excel XLS document containing Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function. Heuristics indicate the use of dangerous formula APIs within the macro, and ClamAV identifies it as an Emotet downloader. The Auto_Open macro is designed to execute a malicious payload upon opening the document, serving as the initial access vector.

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-bd646319c2d29cd6-9951195-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-bd646319c2d29cd6-9951195-0
  • 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
46284ea41c691066b9fe85a87bc7e9bfc77336182ea3b4ed700574b0c8cd3189
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 3141 bytes