Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9ae7d957cb5ebbc8…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

84.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-18
MD5: 5f6b4d0883947467a5edf21d82a00ab5 SHA-1: 456767b953384074801a2ebca5ade5bb94e55fc8 SHA-256: 9ae7d957cb5ebbc8d9a8a6b242d4d1336025136a9cc0b01444a916bb828c86d2
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The macros attempt to download a payload from multiple concatenated URLs, including 'https://stoneflymarketing.com/wminjury/law.com/iYINP/'. ClamAV also identified this as Emotet, a known downloader family. The use of Auto_Open and the download URLs strongly indicate a downloader functionality.

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
a00a9dc891ffeecf0c361f2370dd7d8d2c6347c8945c320c55b411a8dbf8f63f
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 7268 bytes