The initial infection starts when the user extracts the password-protected zip file and executes the link file in the machine.
Upon execution, the .lnk file has commands to drop a malicious VB script file in the Temp location of the target machine.
The dropped VB script further executes with the help of WScript.exe, downloads the Emotet payload from the remote server, and executes it using regsvr32.exe.
The payload URLs are encoded using base64 and decoded during runtime for downloading the Emotet payload. The below Figure shows the VBS file.
Recently, the Emotet campaigns started using .lnk and PowerShell combinations for delivering the payloads. In this campaign, the .lnk file drops a PowerShell file in the Temp folder, which further downloads the Emotet payload from the remote server and executes it using regsvr32.exe. The below Figure shows the PowerShell command used by the malware.