Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 d7ec5139b0606710…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

80.5 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-06-20
MD5: 0506e6bcaea3b54584ee414b08fd48c3 SHA-1: 7bded0d7c52116ff3dfde8d2f79fe76e82ffd995 SHA-256: d7ec5139b06067100252e304a3f5f0a4330916509b61865f72400c8e1d12eaac
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic for Applications T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The macros construct and execute URLs to download a second-stage payload. ClamAV detection confirms this is Emotet. The reconstructed URLs are: http://chalkie.me.uk/cgi-bin/gM LuebaG2RskJ XwY/, http://centaurussits.com/assets/FL/, http://www.cecambrils.cat/wp-content/0KwOSfNSlzV Moc/, and http://cansalcl/cgi-bin/besSIJTfOk0D tHZR/. This indicates the file's purpose is to act as a downloader for further malicious activity.

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
2fdf21f2db447f9be93416b81af1c740576c18d6efe5c8c6f3d215a65c941f1d		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6790 bytes

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