Emotet — Office (OLE) / .XLSX malware analysis

Static analysis result for SHA-256 f7ef9ff8d4f31b24…

MALICIOUS

Office (OLE) / .XLSX

145.0 KB Created: 2015-06-05 18:19:34 Authoring application: Microsoft Excel
MD5: 2ac5e27bf56bd68d54529f0a25e538aa SHA-1: bc42fc5d5184c170a17f83e2584e8c14d7b507f2 SHA-256: f7ef9ff8d4f31b24a66b6f52d60d7218b76f69d6118a4d7ae1c790e623f2ecf7
262 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 that executes dangerous functions. The macros reconstruct and utilize five distinct URLs, indicating a downloader functionality. ClamAV detection further confirms its malicious nature, identifying it as an Emotet variant. The macro's ability to execute arbitrary code via dangerous functions and its direct use of URLs strongly suggest it is designed to download and execute a second-stage payload.

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.
  • URL reconstructed from XLM cell array (5 URLs) critical OLE_XLM_CELL_ARRAY_URL
    Excel 4.0 macro sheet stages its payload URL across the BIFF8 Shared String Table (one quoted-char SST entry concatenated with & at runtime) or across individual numeric cells (one ASCII charcode per cell). The reconstructed URL is invisible to literal-bytes URL extraction because it is never contiguous in the workbook stream. URLs were recovered by walking the BIFF8 record stream and decoding SST entries plus LABELSST/RK/NUMBER cells.
  • ClamAV: Doc.Downloader.EmotetRed02222-9938635-0 critical CLAMAV_DETECTION
    ClamAV detected this file as malware: Doc.Downloader.EmotetRed02222-9938635-0
  • 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.
  • 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://lupus.ktcatl.com/wp-content/uCccWJ/
    • https://packersandmoversbangalorecharges.com/cgi-bin/UrI6GM87K5u2y2pOW/
    • http://123breathe.org/error/Drs/
    • https://greenesqualityflooring.com/error/kUO7NnkpMp2cs/
    • http://new.hssus.org/wp-includes/blocks/eKID0QAfLUS/

Extracted artifacts 1

Files carved from inside the sample during analysis.

FilenameKindSourceSize
xlm_macros.txt
1574ee13450fd34682012e2ebea7c020d326605272204fb688e7873d4a7c8165		 xlm-macro oletools.olevba.extract_all_macros (XLM macro listing) 6756 bytes

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