COINMINER.WIN32.MALXMR.AX

 Analysis by: John Rey Canon

 ALIASES:

Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Miner.bi (Kaspersky); PNG.S.Shellcode.516713 (ViRobot); Troj/Miner-PC (Sophos AV)

 PLATFORM:

Windows

 OVERALL RISK RATING:
 DAMAGE POTENTIAL:
 DISTRIBUTION POTENTIAL:
 REPORTED INFECTION:
 SYSTEM IMPACT RATING:
 INFORMATION EXPOSURE:

  • Threat Type: Coinminer

  • Destructiveness: No

  • Encrypted: Yes

  • In the wild: Yes

  OVERVIEW

Infection Channel:

Downloaded from the Internet, Dropped by other malware

This Coinminer arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

It uses the system's central processing unit (CPU) and/or graphical processing unit (GPU) resources to mine cryptocurrency.

  TECHNICAL DETAILS

File Size:

516,713 bytes

File Type:

PNG

Memory Resident:

Yes

Initial Samples Received Date:

19 Sep 2018

Payload:

Connects to URLs/IPs

Arrival Details

This Coinminer arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

Other Details

This Coinminer does the following:

  • It accepts the following parameters:
    • -a, --algo=ALGO → cryptonight (default) or cryptonight-lite
    • -o, --url=URL → URL of mining server
    • -O, --userpass=U:P → username:password pair for mining server
    • -u, --user=USERNAME → username for mining server
    • -p, --pass=PASSWORD → password for mining server
    • -t, --threads=N → number of miner threads
    • -v, --av=N → algorithm variation, 0 auto select
    • -k, --keepalive → send keepalived for prevent timeout (need pool support)
    • -r, --retries=N → number of times to retry before switch to backup server (default: 5)
    • -R, --retry-pause=N → time to pause between retries (default: 5)
    • --cpu-affinity → set process affinity to CPU core(s), mask 0x3 for cores 0 and 1
    • --cpu-priority → set process priority (0 idle, 2 normal to 5 highest)
    • --no-huge-pages → disable huge pages support
    • --no-color → disable colored output
    • --variant → algorithm PoW variant
    • --donate-level=N → donate level, default 5%% (5 minutes in 100 minutes)
    • --user-agent → set custom user-agent string for pool
    • -B, --background → run the miner in the background
    • -c, --config=FILE → load a JSON-format configuration file
    • -l, --log-file=FILE → log all output to a file
    • --max-cpu-usage=N → maximum CPU usage for automatic threads mode (default 75)
    • --safe → safe adjust threads and av settings for current CPU
    • --nicehash → enable nicehash/xmrig-proxy support
    • --print-time=N → print hashrate report every N seconds
    • --api-port=N → port for the miner API
    • --api-access-token=T → access token for API
    • --api-worker-id=ID → custom worker-id for API
    • -h, --help → display this help and exit
    • -V, --version → output version information and exit
  • It uses the following details for its coin mining routine:
    • URL: s{BLOCKED}cp://pool.{BLOCKED}txmr.com:80
    • Wallet Address: {BLOCKED}uZwQTy2MQ9QeADcaNEWEMfvbyN2jr8gAhj1JLSpzLDSjETfWxrwLvACXuFadeQ8tRZWy8
  • It connects to the following URL which is related to its coin mining routine:
    • {BLOCKED}sh.com
    • {BLOCKED}ate.com

It uses the system's central processing unit (CPU) and/or graphical processing unit (GPU) resources to mine cryptocurrency. This behavior makes the system run abnormally slow.

  SOLUTION

Minimum Scan Engine:

9.850

FIRST VSAPI PATTERN FILE:

14.516.05

FIRST VSAPI PATTERN DATE:

20 Sep 2018

VSAPI OPR PATTERN File:

14.517.00

VSAPI OPR PATTERN Date:

21 Sep 2018

Scan your computer with your Trend Micro product to delete files detected as COINMINER.WIN32.MALXMR.AX. If the detected files have already been cleaned, deleted, or quarantined by your Trend Micro product, no further step is required. You may opt to simply delete the quarantined files. Please check the following Trend Micro Support pages for more information:


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