Analysis by: Warren Adam Sto. Tomas
ALIASES:

PUA.CoinMiner (Ikarus); Miner.XMRig (Norton)

 PLATFORM:

Windows

 OVERALL RISK RATING:
 DAMAGE POTENTIAL:
 DISTRIBUTION POTENTIAL:
 REPORTED INFECTION:
 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 may be downloaded by other malware/grayware from remote sites.

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

  TECHNICAL DETAILS

File Size: 471040 bytes
File Type: EXE
Memory Resident: No
Initial Samples Received Date: 29 May 2019

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.

It may be downloaded by the following malware/grayware from remote sites:

Other Details

This Coinminer does the following:

  • It also accepts the following configuration files: {Coinminer Directory}\config.json

It accepts the following parameters:

  • -a, --algo=ALGO cryptonight, cryptonight-lite, cryptonight-heavy
  • -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
  • --rig-id=ID rig identifier for pool-side statistics (needs pool support)
  • -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)
  • --nicehash enable nicehash.com support
  • --tls enable SSL/TLS support (needs pool support)
  • --tls-fingerprint=F pool TLS certificate fingerprint, if set enable strict certificate pinning
  • -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 cores0 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
  • --asm=ASM ASM code for cn/2, possible values: auto, none, intel, ryzen, bulldozer.
  • --print-time=N print hashrate report every N seconds
  • --api-worker-id=ID custom worker-id for API
  • --api-id=ID custom instance ID for API
  • --http-enabled enable HTTP API
  • --http-host=HOST bind host for HTTP API (by default 127.0.0.1)
  • --http-port=N bind port for HTTP API
  • --http-access-token=T access token for HTTP API
  • --http-no-restricted enable full remote access to HTTP API (only if access token set)
  • --dry-run test configuration and exit
  • -h, --help display this help and exit
  • -V, --version output version information and exit

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: 14.914.58
FIRST VSAPI PATTERN DATE: 03 Apr 2019
VSAPI OPR PATTERN File: 14.915.00
VSAPI OPR PATTERN Date: 04 Apr 2019

Step 1

Before doing any scans, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 users must disable System Restore to allow full scanning of their computers.

Step 2

Identify and terminate files detected as Coinminer.Win64.TOOLXMR.SMA

[ Learn More ]
  1. Windows Task Manager may not display all running processes. In this case, please use a third-party process viewer, preferably Process Explorer, to terminate the malware/grayware/spyware file. You may download the said tool here.
  2. If the detected file is displayed in either Windows Task Manager or Process Explorer but you cannot delete it, restart your computer in safe mode. To do this, refer to this link for the complete steps.
  3. If the detected file is not displayed in either Windows Task Manager or Process Explorer, continue doing the next steps.

Step 3

Scan your computer with your Trend Micro product to delete files detected as Coinminer.Win64.TOOLXMR.SMA. 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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