Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 bcc7269ff574628a…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

78.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-13
MD5: ce4ec9fdd44b1b1cd24a7f1939d4c468 SHA-1: 7c0daa1cd197d2387f50a0234ccc145529bf7e67 SHA-256: bcc7269ff574628ad8a1d085545e6e118d641b591adc85228e2238222cb21f8f
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution: Malicious File

The file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet containing an Auto_Open function. This function is designed to execute a series of concatenated strings that form URLs and a path to save and execute a file. The script reconstructs the following URLs: 'http://hostal-alfons-o12.com/classes/SKtPv/v/', 'http://howesitgoing.com/images/HyaDnlbl6K7tbh2LuGys/', 'https://www.jdserralheria.com.br/cgi-bin/KFG6/', 'http://inteirado.com.br/fonts/7dJCVvuE5x3YrGQ2oJz/', 'http://iciee.unirta.ac.id/test/GccRw/', and 'https://ideos-o.com.tw/cgi-bin/zlrnBd2Eg1N3UVy5yL/'. It also constructs the path 'C:\Windows\System32\.exe' for saving the downloaded payload. This behavior is characteristic of a downloader, and the ClamAV detection specifically names 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-add2d22d2bc26dd0-9950243-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-add2d22d2bc26dd0-9950243-0
  • 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
214b0200160a0a56c6b45537e99f08bf5e131e2710192ec67ed6ddfaa9428b75		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6825 bytes

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