Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 78fc6e02ed8b715b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

73.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-16
MD5: e0012f1a56d608571d7a14fa434916be SHA-1: fef1fb5ed3f4399cc62a42ecf015a849bd1be827 SHA-256: 78fc6e02ed8b715bf93cbcbfcc6c663341e772e15bea06ec44a6e79404d0cb6b
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The critical heuristics OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN, OLE_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME, and OLE_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN indicate the presence of an Excel 4.0 macro with an Auto_Open function that uses dangerous APIs like RUN. The macro reconstructs the URL "http://anguiano.com/wp-admin/BLMH9Q3bG/" and the path "C:\Windows\System32\t.exe", suggesting it downloads and executes a second-stage payload. ClamAV detection further supports the malicious nature and points to the Emotet family.

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-ea85857e7e81817a-9950241-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea85857e7e81817a-9950241-0
  • 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
9aad8521d90ca7f536d86e805137dbff97d82a2ac842ee968dd491451c1e0d83		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6831 bytes

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