Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 e52f5b4f9a83d316…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

80.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-06-16
MD5: 97cd0d717d423d9d28db78aa031dbce9 SHA-1: a20f1f35ce20242345e0fab8dd3a81f14ac5c1cb SHA-256: e52f5b4f9a83d316de66d7dbb9ec6aca8cb929a83d0e98bd1afdf4745adb715d
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File T1059.001 PowerShell T1059.003 Windows Command Shell T1059.004 JScript/VBScript

The critical heuristics indicate the presence of Excel 4.0 macros with an Auto_Open function, specifically using the RUN API, which is a strong indicator of malicious intent. ClamAV detection further confirms this, identifying it as Emotet. The macro sheet contains multiple URLs that are likely used to download and execute a second-stage payload. The Auto_Open macro is designed to execute automatically when the workbook is opened, facilitating the download and execution of malicious content.

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
7ab5ef6689937532951c996fe211a2ac046a3dbc546728bfe725212729605929
xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6790 bytes