Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 64ff2f53597a590a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

217.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-11-03
MD5: 2cbd1cdca247f0f28fc63a5c0e0b13d5 SHA-1: 966e13dfaa1080606d3f47e8cb6c3abd5568b847 SHA-256: 64ff2f53597a590af0608eb012ffd3320f647949019b806da2cbf6fed1eae264
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Service Execution T1566.001 Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment

The file is an Excel 4.0 spreadsheet containing an Auto_Open macro, a known technique for executing malicious code upon opening. ClamAV detection confirms this is an Emotet variant, a downloader family. The macro uses dangerous formula APIs, indicating it is designed to execute arbitrary commands.

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-b649c93692b4c9d9-9976616-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-b649c93692b4c9d9-9976616-0
  • 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
47d7ff6f0b0088ab7c3843e822f420901d914e88b9b68ed4eccffe18bb67b05a		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8266 bytes

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