Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 ce0b8b6d98e1c76f…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

96.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-07-13
MD5: 485c17577eab69fb8c39be0fcf864123 SHA-1: 68285532806bc47bbc221454736bb8ce5e940f8b SHA-256: ce0b8b6d98e1c76fa2c8dd158b1b1374671ba8a9c676acb88542215b3670c078
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 file is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet containing an Auto_Open macro. This macro utilizes dangerous formula APIs, specifically the RUN function, to execute a payload. ClamAV detection identifies the file as Emotet, a known downloader family. The Auto_Open macro is designed 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-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea81817e7f807ab1-9952142-0
  • 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
44b7c45128c9ebff1e2d4c700363a400191ad3820db3f6fdcc49f6028eab1dc9		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8173 bytes

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