Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9e8e880b809625b7…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

94.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-07-04
MD5: f6cde794aa4b589f33f42fb392490e0e SHA-1: 9d0d917b020fce9bfdc79ddf377fda4dcd04f1cd SHA-256: 9e8e880b809625b72c6f29d185f6bbb97283402fcea980690550dfec0144cd1a
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Service Execution T1059.001 PowerShell: PowerShell

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open defined name, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The presence of the 'RUN' function within the macro further indicates its role as a downloader. ClamAV detection confirms this, identifying it as Emotet.

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
abd764d548a6c536ccc8dedd0c9877c4d72543082677a15673e28a5d6a8d3f0b		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8124 bytes

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