Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 6547d6eb746bf27d…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

94.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-07-04
MD5: a3d39f51ca2556c999febf4336744f49 SHA-1: 63c8c25235c802adf5393128bd5b92767de6bc22 SHA-256: 6547d6eb746bf27d9834e73b101a4b8c6c27c55a9539df17abb14f52ecae128c
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The sample is identified as malicious by ClamAV with the signature 'Xls.Downloader.Emotet'. Static analysis revealed the presence of Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name that utilizes dangerous formula APIs, including a RUN function. This indicates the macro is intended to automatically execute and likely download a second-stage payload, 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
abd764d548a6c536ccc8dedd0c9877c4d72543082677a15673e28a5d6a8d3f0b		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8124 bytes

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