Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 79dca61a8b1f02ee…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

70.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-04-22
MD5: debc315f6ab9185c34a4da80086bf39d SHA-1: c510f896e72cb4537a605a3dd8f0a82e4b1f4ed2 SHA-256: 79dca61a8b1f02ee76713ecf9649335a12c23bd4f247be57e3f68602d2688db7
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The macro is designed to download and execute a second-stage payload from one of the provided URLs. ClamAV detection further confirms its malicious nature, identifying it as Emotet.

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-b3c5cc3b13c03bcc-9950246-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-b3c5cc3b13c03bcc-9950246-0
  • 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
30ada183749f97ebaf18ae6bd28860c0d00794baffcbe6164f1acabbc23f484b		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6769 bytes

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