Analysis by: John Anthony Banes

ALIASES:

Trojan.BitCoinMiner.CQ (Kaspersky); a variant of Linux/BitCoinMiner.AE (ESET-NOD32)

 PLATFORM:

Linux

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

  • Threat Type: Hacking Tool

  • Destructiveness: No

  • Encrypted: No

  • In the wild: Yes

  OVERVIEW

Infection Channel: Downloaded from the Internet, Dropped by other malware

This Hacking Tool 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 does not have any propagation routine.

It does not have any backdoor routine.

It requires being executed with a specific argument/parameter, an additional component, or in a specific environment in order to proceed with its intended routine.

  TECHNICAL DETAILS

File Size: 484,192 bytes
File Type: ELF
Memory Resident: Yes
Initial Samples Received Date: 24 Dec 2017
Payload: Affects system's computing power

Arrival Details

This Hacking Tool 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:

  • HKTL_COINMINE.GN

Propagation

This Hacking Tool does not have any propagation routine.

Backdoor Routine

This Hacking Tool does not have any backdoor routine.

Other Details

This Hacking Tool does the following:

  • This hacking tool is a coin miner used to generate bitcoins and it requires credentials for the mining server.
  • The mining process eats up a system's computing power. As such, infected systems sustain increased wear and tear from processing coin blocks and the infected systems will work abnormally slow.
  • 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
    • --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
    • -S, --syslog → use system log for output messages
    • --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 support
    • --print-time=N → print hashrate report every N seconds
    • -h, --help → display this help and exit
    • -V, --version → output version information and exit

It requires being executed with a specific argument/parameter, an additional component, or in a specific environment in order to proceed with its intended routine.

  SOLUTION

Minimum Scan Engine: 9.850
SSAPI PATTERN File: 1.905.00
SSAPI PATTERN Date: 28 Dec 2017

Scan your computer with your Trend Micro product to delete files detected as HKTL_COINMINE.GP. 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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