Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 63a2b87a8eb25ec9…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

95.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-07-04
MD5: 14f66a3bd2c0c1a4f614379e6d505315 SHA-1: 4bcb6bddfb793af241eba62bee691dbb113591cf SHA-256: 63a2b87a8eb25ec9fda56831145e6d3e76a4b5e98fe99a47a6669fa4dad4c561
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The file is identified as malicious by ClamAV with the signature 'Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0'. Static analysis revealed the presence of Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name that utilizes dangerous formula APIs like RUN. This indicates the macro is designed to execute a payload, likely a downloader, consistent with Emotet's typical behavior.

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
af7e08eb74381f391d59ad043f1ef517fa450a796c57fe61d66c86ac41aaa1e8		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8147 bytes

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