Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e407ffc659ce6dad…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

72.0 KB Created: 2022-03-30 21:24:25 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-03-31
MD5: 498b1e5b8597a637da1d3b5faac0c783 SHA-1: 50c91e94d7c302da64879a54f5e70a84725fd0ac SHA-256: e407ffc659ce6dadbaad5b7504b8758ca42570bc7fa2801a4156aac6520b3646
242 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

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

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. The macros are designed to download and execute a second-stage payload from one of the embedded URLs. The presence of 'regsvr32.exe' in the document body, along with multiple suspicious URLs, further supports the malicious nature of the file. ClamAV detection confirms this is Emotet.

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.
  • 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-b680c97f3ec1c03e-9951030-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-b680c97f3ec1c03e-9951030-0
  • LOLBin token sequence in document text high SE_LOLBIN_RUN_COMMAND
    Extracted document text contains a Windows script/execution tool name (PowerShell, mshta, cmd, rundll32, regsvr32, …) within 220 characters of a dangerous flag, command verb, or URL. This is a visible 'run this' instruction in HTML/PDF/RTF lure bodies, or — in macro-laden Office files — the macro's own string-pool entries appearing adjacent in extracted text.
  • 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.
  • Embedded URL info EMBEDDED_URL
    One or more URLs were extracted from the document. The URL itself is not a detection — see the per-URL labels for which channel (macro, JS, link annotation, document body, ...) reached each URL.
    URL http://holidayonehotel.com/libraries/lxek/
    • https://hatipogluhali.com/application/2CkpKEf2H0F/
    • http://e-kinerja.ntbprov.go.id/aset/3yVdAF2bISfGwBmMk/
    • http://https://

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
e342c8d53177c1c3fac8b4b8b2f8c2570c54badc27bdb7b3327aa2bfc5651763		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 7272 bytes

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