Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 f6c6e2de6c48ffc6…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

128.7 KB Created: 2022-01-17 21:27:03 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: d16abaa6ce8dcf8a54209cd20aa918df SHA-1: 4e680543be86c4b0839dd8668ee1c02400cb3b00 SHA-256: f6c6e2de6c48ffc623320a3b19ef24f8dc009d55b9d388b58847ef5008962cc3
140 Risk Score

Malware Insights

Emotet · confidence 95%

MITRE ATT&CK
T1059.005 Service Execution: Service Control T1204.002 Malicious File Execution: Malicious File

The sample contains Excel 4.0 macros, specifically an Auto_Open macro, which is a strong indicator of malicious intent. The macro is configured to execute a command using 'mshta' to download content from a hardcoded URL, likely a second-stage payload. The ClamAV signature 'Doc.Downloader.EmotetExcel01220-9936774-0' further supports the Emotet family attribution and the downloader functionality.

Heuristics 3

  • 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.
  • ClamAV: Doc.Downloader.EmotetExcel01220-9936774-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.EmotetExcel01220-9936774-0
  • 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
a0fd1b709c0182b7bfad87bd5382ad41592e9af0d0093f5e68d1ff145f18d235		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 653 bytes

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