Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 a52786d489cd9ab3…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

95.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-07-13
MD5: 60c59253a3f02ec7c57e80543584b5fa SHA-1: 8d71b8dfee95de36702b427efac8dd4f036c8c48 SHA-256: a52786d489cd9ab34a392697e03b783f1acd5a0056bbfc71214a6ff9930638f0
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Visual Basic T1566.001 Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet that contains an Auto_Open function, indicating it's designed to execute code upon opening. ClamAV detection confirms it as a downloader, specifically linked to the Emotet family. The macro uses dangerous formula APIs, suggesting it likely downloads and executes a second-stage 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
85773188e79d904ef8ecf815a27f3a8200cc87e1822ab4901cc9bed29c53e636		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8156 bytes

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