Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 c7fbe66b6160048e…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

91.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-11-10
MD5: 2f51ce8cc55f1646ae84aa382b387d9b SHA-1: 7acac2b94c8da61dfe05130c0d089c3f4ae1f820 SHA-256: c7fbe66b6160048ee7975830f68f5ad83e2f77230ba8bd4a72e212d49f36725d
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The file is identified as malicious by ClamAV with the signature Xls.Downloader.Emotet. Crucially, it contains Excel 4.0 macros, including an Auto_Open function that utilizes dangerous API calls like RUN. This indicates the macro is designed to automatically execute a malicious payload upon opening the spreadsheet, consistent with Emotet's typical delivery methods.

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-ca2435d8af069a3f-9977227-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ca2435d8af069a3f-9977227-0
  • 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
95ffd208f8956e7e658e6e280e4d9cae443d13635dba29440ab21e756e41e94a		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8400 bytes

Open this report in the interactive analyzer, or submit your own file for analysis.