Emotet Office (OOXML) / .XLSM malware analysis — malicious · bd5925effecd1a50

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSM

69.8 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2022-02-26

MD5: 98446c138f6df32d26f819ca3fa05cb7 SHA-1: 75c2c1065d77fc586e4e0112d8157c20d8f1251f SHA-256: bd5925effecd1a50f66968351e9e979a9b04411a02eacc73e1fc4f14c2baa34f

270 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The sample is an XLSM file containing Excel 4.0 macros, which are known to be used for malicious purposes. The macros utilize dangerous functions like FORMULA to construct and execute commands. The embedded URLs are identified as download sources for a second-stage payload. ClamAV detection confirms this as an Emotet downloader variant. The macros appear to be designed to download and execute a payload from one of the provided URLs using regsvr32.exe.

Heuristics 7

Excel 4.0 macro sheet (3 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET

Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks.
Excel 4.0 Auto_Open defined name critical OOXML_XLM_AUTOOPEN_DEFINEDNAME

Workbook defines _xlnm.Auto_Open or _xlnm.Auto_Close while containing an XLM macro sheet. This is the OOXML/XLSB auto-execution shape for Excel 4.0 macros.
Dangerous XLM formula APIs: FORMULA critical OOXML_XLM_DANGEROUS_FN

Excel 4.0 macro sheet uses formula APIs that call directly into Win32 (=CALL/=EXEC/=REGISTER/=FORMULA). These are the primitives used to download payloads, write files, and start processes from an XLM macro without invoking VBA.
ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.Emotet03221-9940728-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION

ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet03221-9940728-0
External relationship medium OOXML_EXTERNAL_REL

External target in xl/externalLinks/_rels/externalLink1.xml.rels: /Users/Admin/Desktop/File/13j/ZV/ZV.xlsm
Hidden worksheet (hidden) low OOXML_HIDDEN_SHEET

Excel workbook contains 5 hidden sheet(s) — hidden sheets are commonly used to conceal macro code, staging data, or intermediate payload construction
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 https://vasilestudio.com/wp-admin/pZ1vbd5Z/
- https://estesgroup.net/New-site-25062021/UkQPppHG9pLNE/
- https://robointeligentedecomentarios.com/wp-includes/YBS9a02Y68auiEdP/
- https://triclicks.net/wp-admin/bv/
- https://thecanadianarab.com/wp-content/VJ/
- http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2006/main
- http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships
- http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2009/9/ac
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2014/revision
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2015/revision2
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision3
- http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/spreadsheetml/2016/revision6

Extracted artifacts 3

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

Filename	Kind	Source	Size
`xlm_sheet_00.xml` `6dd9356952cdd6b95caf156e3e1c1471d7e098b9395e326c2a5a80643c35f018`	xlm-macrosheet	OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.xml	3546 bytes
`xlm_sheet_01.xml` `966e861f35410708893ffb1f97241504111fc93333012aa9c7613d379c3c60bb`	xlm-macrosheet	OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.xml	1204 bytes
`xlm_sheet_02.xml` `67d74ce6825b900ebce4400789acf68e409bb1eeffe279bee966d138d9d814c1`	xlm-macrosheet	OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.xml	1227 bytes

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