Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 9f8b5f5da718fafb…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

89.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2023-04-15
MD5: ae72f6016f8929c7780693cadfb855ef SHA-1: bda7fd78150a0103f3c2281d90074332ccfa8cde SHA-256: 9f8b5f5da718fafb98de9b2128cd81fd720a37de6c755b81965ead358aeb912a
322 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell T1059.003 Windows Command Shell

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros, including an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The heuristic 'SC_STR_URLDOWNLOAD' and the presence of embedded URLs indicate that the macro is designed to download a secondary payload. The 'SE_LOLBIN_RUN_COMMAND' heuristic firing with 'regsvr32.exe /S ..\phdg1.ocxBn> �jurlmonURLDownloadToFileAJJ' further suggests the execution of downloaded content. ClamAV detection confirms this is a known Emotet downloader variant.

Heuristics 8

  • Reference to URLDownloadToFile API critical SC_STR_URLDOWNLOAD
    Reference to URLDownloadToFile API
  • 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
  • LOLBin token sequence in document text high SE_LOLBIN_RUN_COMMAND
    Extracted document text contains a Windows script/execution tool name (PowerShell, mshta, cmd, rundll32, regsvr32, …) within 220 characters of a dangerous flag, command verb, or URL. This is a visible 'run this' instruction in HTML/PDF/RTF lure bodies, or — in macro-laden Office files — the macro's own string-pool entries appearing adjacent in extracted text.
  • 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.
  • Suspicious extracted artifact medium EXTRACTED_FILE_STATIC_TRIAGE
    One or more files extracted from inside this sample matched static suspicious-content checks such as script obfuscation, encoded payload blobs, packed data, or execution/download terms.
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://bruidsfotografie-breda.nl/cache/QPk/
    • http://www.chawkyfrenn.com/icon/JtT/
    • https://chiptochip.es/alojamiento-web/dofwXVVQ3hvsp/
    • http://chillpassion.com/wp-content/nd4wjKgokzKbKH0DQDD/

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
e0300c91af1d157211534dbaf57555c87b0e23e2ea468ab91399c975b5f22bde		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8879 bytes
Detection
ClamAV: No threats found
Obfuscation or payload: likely
Carved artifact contains 4 shell/COM execution token(s).

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