Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 871c3a560fe16ebb…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

84.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-18
MD5: 7ba8d019f4bfbf169aa4c31dbf28edb8 SHA-1: 72a7923a60de928fe371e465ca70700c4d1bcbb8 SHA-256: 871c3a560fe16ebb0c953f84ff95e05eb7c5075b8356b09aa43bddeec9c21826
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Service Execution T1204.002 Malicious File: Malicious File

The file is identified as an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled workbook. Heuristics indicate the presence of an Auto_Open macro that utilizes dangerous functions, specifically 'RUN()'. The macro constructs several URLs by concatenating string fragments, including 'http://oftalmoctity.com/wp-admin/xDjDiXhcS/', 'https://muslimproperty.co.uk/cgi-bin/8lS/', and others. These URLs are likely used to download and execute 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-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
0cb51e2b45474969ef5d3ca03d3bf113e2de005c4844b30e4f23fd47bb8a4d56		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 7272 bytes

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