Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLS malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 f123c9d31cbd8e9b…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLS

70.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel First seen: 2022-05-02
MD5: 43b83f60437b697cb337677a1950896b SHA-1: 7d8de00c57c1c4bbfed962b4f613df32726a4caa SHA-256: f123c9d31cbd8e9b6e9218ae53405cf9b68db8f74c5cd9e59ca4f12afa55b7c9
200 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Visual Basic T1204.002 Malicious File

The file 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 provided URLs. ClamAV detection confirms this is Emotet, a known downloader family. The reconstructed URL 'http://ecoarch.com.tw/cgi-bin/E/' is a primary indicator of compromise.

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-b3c5cc3b13c03bcc-9950246-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Xls.Downloader.Emotet-b3c5cc3b13c03bcc-9950246-0
  • 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
023eece581745d86e8a881663e496cab25dc20dc1e2c24ba47f1be10064b9c6f		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6827 bytes

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