Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 cb48432812d94f51…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

53.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-06-21
MD5: c667d725e0aa8fb6488d3a754a8fcf5a SHA-1: 01c4f7da47b49f12faf7f80f2b9ad082337fdbde SHA-256: cb48432812d94f5198092aef5180aae5053e62c172c7cb1f54dc7e1a1b42d288
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The macro uses the RUN function to execute a downloaded payload from one of the provided URLs. ClamAV detection confirms this is Emotet. The reconstructed URLs are: http://egasc.com/7DORfidiAu/BquoSUs/, http://ewingconsulting.com/buy/Ewj7oYjYhYQ/, http://ceramicafortalaleza.com/css/5DSBCCH0/, and http://thuybaohuy.com/wp-content/VxhkYwH7/. The macro's intent is to download and execute 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-aa87d5786a858772-9953435-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-aa87d5786a858772-9953435-0
  • 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
7ab5ef6689937532951c996fe211a2ac046a3dbc546728bfe725212729605929		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6790 bytes

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