Emotet — Office (OOXML) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 6988c31a1211046a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

264.4 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2022-02-22
MD5: a3d9ec0b1355db40a7f805503c521f84 SHA-1: e520272b61f4abd49dc30a60f2f63f7f92531000 SHA-256: 6988c31a1211046a00837371dd0c28d3ac17d28370b2c3e88524ba0ee1d448a1
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The file was detected as Emotet by ClamAV and exhibits critical heuristic firings for Excel 4.0 macro sheets. These macros are likely responsible for downloading and executing a secondary payload, a common Emotet behavior. The presence of multiple macro sheets indicates a complex macro structure designed for obfuscation or multi-stage execution.

Heuristics 2

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (3 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks. The macro sheet is stored as XLSB/BIFF12 binary content, which many XML-only OOXML scanners miss.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-OOXML_XL-af43432fbcb8603c-9980048-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-OOXML_XL-af43432fbcb8603c-9980048-0

Extracted artifacts 3

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.bin
9b2e50f12432ed6fd9de675753f0d9826331df24bd78153db79fd9eebafcc61d		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.bin 2451 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.bin
44d7986195da6c6db7ea97a0c0b6940f7c97cdda594fad3dfdc183b8f2cd5f14		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.bin 484 bytes
xlm_sheet_02.bin
e1a8185f6a63ebad9ede83360d579b89743f240ad31c58cb55a11c9f4b137759		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.bin 484 bytes

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