Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 951941b7fc257806…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

50.5 KB Created: 2022-04-01 07:14:19 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-04-01
MD5: 75e3ebe6bcfed321573904e4206cdb53 SHA-1: 7092813497566a5ab908b2279432f2ee7589037d SHA-256: 951941b7fc257806fa493b4ae3d4c16d240916d808a436f59cab82129a7832d3
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious Link: User Execution T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a critical finding. The macros are designed to execute 'regsvr32.exe' and download a payload from one of the provided URLs. The ClamAV signature 'Doc.Downloader.Emotet04220-9942582-0' strongly suggests the Emotet family. The reconstructed URL 'https://virtual.com/affinit/ryXUZdAHeCNN/EG/' is a key indicator for the download and execution chain.

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: Doc.Downloader.Emotet04220-9942582-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.Emotet04220-9942582-0
  • 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
5916f679082efc18ea64a7b5dff941d98d6004f291cc57a7a9b206d7b455d7c5		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 7323 bytes

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.