Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 92ec32d920f55325…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

78.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-15
MD5: 27aca1ecde1d8ba75a3d7731943aa56d SHA-1: b03ca70a0ab63c3505e7a62c30331a568594f4fd SHA-256: 92ec32d920f55325bbd98221259f675341b0359cfefb3ce5b167adc219e47838
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 macro that utilizes dangerous functions like RUN. The macros are designed to download and execute a second-stage payload, reconstructing the path C:\Windows\System32\t.exe from concatenated strings. Several URLs were extracted, likely serving as download sources for the payload. ClamAV detection confirms this is a known Emotet variant.

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-add2d22d2bc26dd0-9950243-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-add2d22d2bc26dd0-9950243-0
  • 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
214b0200160a0a56c6b45537e99f08bf5e131e2710192ec67ed6ddfaa9428b75		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6825 bytes

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