Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 93bb5ffd7096d212…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

95.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-07-04
MD5: 5e0379d8a4adbc2c65b91ceb576ab645 SHA-1: fe9850fe0560ed19660536baf91c40aa54ef621c SHA-256: 93bb5ffd7096d212388dbaaf8d0a961c5cc6bee4295e81d0c13d1db9b8d39eb1
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. ClamAV detection identifies this as an Emotet downloader. The macro sheet contains calls to dangerous formula APIs, indicating it is designed to download and execute a secondary payload.

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-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0
  • 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
af7e08eb74381f391d59ad043f1ef517fa450a796c57fe61d66c86ac41aaa1e8		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8147 bytes

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