Emotet — Office (OOXML) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 7d41ab4d59a7b038…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

233.8 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2022-03-09
MD5: e050364b4c997a012deb3a212197def6 SHA-1: c67ef5a2b13589f0c1453c1dcd9a3a530bf616a9 SHA-256: 7d41ab4d59a7b038048583853dea87a54a63bbde7934598ebcee8e8388ac1eb1
120 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The file was detected as malicious by ClamAV with the signature Xls.Downloader.Emotet-OOXML_XL-af43432fbcb8603c-9980048-0, indicating it is likely an Emotet downloader. Static analysis revealed the presence of Excel 4.0 macros across multiple sheets, which are commonly used to execute malicious code. These macros are likely responsible for downloading and executing a second-stage payload.

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
ba41a11b1be4eaa156bff86597ea809a971edc4d801f70a4529d6d84b93c19c0		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.bin 2469 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.bin
294fba96533e16b8e32fcc670b890c44fe9dfc759e5d84743c74026ba7bd4a20		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.bin 428 bytes
xlm_sheet_02.bin
f0daf3cbff097906d4170f35f5f5c2394e9b70d2a487782035c708617ae7b9ec		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.bin 428 bytes

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