Emotet — Office (OOXML) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 d2fd7095bea3fc7d…

MALICIOUS

Office (OOXML) / .XLSX

258.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 UTC Authoring application: Microsoft Excel 16.0300 First seen: 2022-02-15
MD5: 61e98871e0d0baf51bfe486c5d3a9b8d SHA-1: 0e469c034da3656e5d873ec7c78d4c5751eea633 SHA-256: d2fd7095bea3fc7d5c862b4804baba451d01a494d23875028b12714c077955a2
180 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic

The file is identified as malicious by ClamAV with the signature Xls.Downloader.Emotet-OOXML_XL-af43432fbcb8603c-9980048-0, indicating it is an Emotet downloader. Heuristics confirm the presence of Excel 4.0 macro sheets within the XLSX file, which are commonly used for malicious purposes. The extracted macro content, though truncated, suggests it is designed to download and execute a secondary payload.

Heuristics 3

  • Excel 4.0 macro sheet (3 sheet(s)) critical OOXML_XLM_MACROSHEET
    Spreadsheet contains an Excel 4.0 (XLM) macro sheet — XLM was a major Office malware vector during 2020-2022 and evaded many VBA-focused controls before Microsoft tightened XLM defaults. Even legitimate XLM use is rare in modern workbooks. The macro sheet is stored as XLSB/BIFF12 binary content, which many XML-only OOXML scanners miss.
  • XLSB international XLM macro sheet hidden in .xlsx critical OOXML_XLSB_INTL_MACROSHEET_IN_XLSX
    OOXML package is named .xlsx but contains XLSB workbook parts and an international Excel 4.0 macro sheet. This hides XLM macro execution from scanners that trust the extension or only inspect XML worksheet parts. The technique is macro execution, not a document-parser CVE.
  • ClamAV: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-OOXML_XL-af43432fbcb8603c-9980048-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-OOXML_XL-af43432fbcb8603c-9980048-0

Extracted artifacts 3

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_sheet_00.bin
cd9549f3f60544f853c00b5eb3c8e486b8cb1bce93764246b9121e5f259d7ccc		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/intlsheet1.bin 2474 bytes
xlm_sheet_01.bin
4a5404e13cad24023f87ffa3d548dcb34420bc3d95ce11a786e95d9855762755		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet1.bin 484 bytes
xlm_sheet_02.bin
dd6a2b630c56356919ca960b5050e7da4cbf2eb4d6dd2eaf22033eff1a33c2fa		 xlm-macrosheet OOXML XLM macro sheet: xl/macrosheets/sheet2.bin 484 bytes

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