Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 ca0b14626e9f6164…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

216.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-11-02
MD5: ed375705bc667b62a742baf03ebc7286 SHA-1: 14040e09a9be661c522f1e2ef7e2a3ebd1b9eb2c SHA-256: ca0b14626e9f6164088666e7763488c0bf95928c260990e594cfba583aac9f16
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. ClamAV identified this file as Emotet, a downloader family. The macro likely downloads and executes a second-stage payload, consistent with Emotet's behavior.

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-b649c93692b4c9d9-9976616-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-b649c93692b4c9d9-9976616-0
  • 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
106723e9d4e5e8742cadd8ab3b3c276df9e04e9f026271b79b7247eae7a376b2		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8150 bytes

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