Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 ee08145aafbbfe0b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

91.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-11-10
MD5: fc4cd373d66d684cb35abc6124b24b07 SHA-1: e154708212a91d38e0d16be2e7f16b10be64a30c SHA-256: ee08145aafbbfe0b2b0305afa38b9acf24e817a71aa0a01a4e898b47df0401d7
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment

The file contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open function, which is a known technique for executing malicious code. ClamAV detection identifies this as an Emotet downloader variant. The macro's use of dangerous formula APIs like RUN indicates an intent to download and execute a second-stage payload.

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-ca2435d8af069a3f-9977227-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-ca2435d8af069a3f-9977227-0
  • 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
321b81130e5b9a2459a21ff50079bce0274f84f5b70591e31e89ec850b1b1773		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 8508 bytes

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