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PUA_TOOLBTC.GA-ELF

September 04, 2018
 Analysis by: John Anthony Banes
 ALIASES:

PUA.Linux.Miner (Ikarus); HEUR:RiskTool.Linux.BitCoinMiner.a (Kaspersky); a variant of Linux/CoinMiner.K (NOD32)

 PLATFORM:

Linux

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

  • Threat Type: Coinminer

  • Destructiveness: No

  • Encrypted: No

  • 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.

  TECHNICAL DETAILS

File Size:

468,300 bytes

File Type:

ELF

Memory Resident:

No

Initial Samples Received Date:

31 Aug 2018

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:

  • This is a coin miner used to generate bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies and it requires credentials for the mining server.
  • It accepts the following parameters:
    • -a, --algo=ALGO → specify the algorithm to use (scrypt, scrypt:N, sha256d, yescrypt)
    • -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
    • --cert=FILE → certificate for mining server using SSL
    • -x, --proxy=[PROTOCOL://]HOST[:PORT] → connect through a proxy
    • -t, --threads=N → number of miner threads (default: number of processors)
    • -r, --retries=N → number of times to retry if a network call fails (default: retry indefinitely)
    • -R, --retry-pause=N → time to pause between retries, in seconds (default: 30)
    • -T, --timeout=N → timeout for long polling, in seconds (default: none)
    • -s, --scantime=N → upper bound on time spent scanning current work when long polling is unavailable, in seconds (default: 5)
    • --coinbase-addr=ADDR → payout address for solo mining
    • --coinbase-sig=TEXT → data to insert in the coinbase when possible
    • --no-longpoll → disable long polling support
    • --no-getwork → disable getwork support
    • --no-gbt → disable getblocktemplate support
    • --no-stratum → disable X-Stratum support
    • --no-redirect → ignore requests to change the URL of the mining server
    • -q, --quiet → disable per-thread hashmeter output
    • -D, --debug → enable debug output
    • -H, --hashdebug → enable hash debug output
    • -P, --protocol-dump → verbose dump of protocol-level activities
    • -S, --syslog → use system log for output messages
    • -B, --background → run the miner in the background
    • --benchmark → run in offline benchmark mode
    • -c, --config=FILE → load a JSON-format configuration file
    • -V, --version → display version information and exit
    • -h, --help → display this help text and exit
  • It uses the system's central processing unit (CPU) resources to mine for cryptocurrency. This behavior makes the system run abnormally slow.

  SOLUTION

Minimum Scan Engine:

9.850

SSAPI PATTERN File:

1.995.00

SSAPI PATTERN Date:

06 Sep 2018

Scan your computer with your Trend Micro product to delete files detected as PUA_TOOLBTC.GA-ELF. 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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