Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 d20690f352b36dac…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

79.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-18
MD5: 0e94888ba8256a51753f7f9155009345 SHA-1: dad63d26ad44daa2a601d004bd3aafc27ac1b2fe SHA-256: d20690f352b36dac34d6cff24f7e83c496eb6ea6e2a61ab037839dad64fa7bea
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The macros are designed to download a payload from one of the provided URLs. ClamAV detection confirms this is Emotet. The reconstructed URLs are: "https://bulldogironworksllc.com/temp/IVHD00GG/", "https://hwtw.com.tw/backend/alertifjs/b4QyfcO/", "https://bencevendeghaz.hu/wp-includes/IsD34il/", "http://kaspervandendenberg.net/2009/blR3Gu/", "http://kamalarar.az/kohne/upgrade/qhad2iRlMA7btF/", and "http://livres.art.br/erros/gfyEw/".

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-ea85857e7e81817a-9950241-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ea85857e7e81817a-9950241-0
  • 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
9adf99aa959e452d549d1e4979c57edf0d871284640bacfef310bdb0044249bc		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 7262 bytes

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