Analysis by: Maria Emreen Viray

ALIASES:

HEUR:RiskTool.Win32.BitCoinMiner.gen (KASPERSKY)

 PLATFORM:

Windows

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

  • Threat Type: Coinminer

  • Destructiveness: No

  • Encrypted:

  • 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: 3,493,888 bytes
File Type: EXE
Memory Resident: Yes
Initial Samples Received Date: 18 Jun 2021
Payload: Others

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 supports the following algorithm options:
    • allium → Garlicoin (GRLC)
    • anime → Animecoin (ANI)
    • argon2 → Argon2 Coin (AR2)
    • argon2d250
    • argon2d500 → argon2d-dyn or Dynamic (DYN)
    • argon2d4096 → argon2d-uis or Unitus (UIS)'
    • axiom → Shabal-256 MemoHash
    • blake → blake256r14 (SFR)
    • blake2b → Blake2b 256
    • blake2s → Blake-2 S
    • blakecoin → blake256r8
    • bmw → BMW 256
    • bmw512 → BMW 512
    • c11 → Chaincoin
    • decred → Blake256r14dcr
    • deep → Deepcoin (DCN)
    • dmd-gr → Diamond
    • gr → Ghost Rider - Raptoreum (RTM)
    • groestl → Groestl coin
    • hex → x16r-hex
    • hmq1725 → Espers
    • hodl → Hodlcoin
    • jha → jackppot (Jackpotcoin)
    • keccak → Maxcoin
    • keccakc → Creative Coin
    • lbry → LBC or LBRY Credits
    • lyra2h → Hppcoin
    • lyra2re → lyra2
    • lyra2rev2 → lyrav2
    • lyra2rev3 → lyrav2v3
    • lyra2z
    • lyra2z330 → Lyra2 330 rows
    • m7m → Magi (XMG)
    • myr-gr → Myriad-Groestl
    • minotaur → Ringcoin (RNG)
    • neoscrypt → NeoScrypt(128 or 2 or 1)
    • nist5 → Nist5
    • pentablake → 5 x blake512
    • phi1612 → phi
    • phi2
    • polytimos
    • power2b → MicroBitcoin (MBC)
    • quark → Quark
    • qubit → Qubit
    • scrypt → scrypt(1024 or 1 or 1) (default)
    • scrypt:N → scrypt(N or 1 or 1)
    • sha256d → Double SHA-256
    • sha256q → Quad SHA-256 or Pyrite (PYE)
    • sha256t → Triple SHA-256 or Onecoin (OC)
    • sha3d → Double Keccak256 (BSHA3)
    • shavite3 → Shavite3
    • skein → Skein+Sha (Skeincoin)
    • skein2 → Double Skein (Woodcoin)
    • skunk → Signatum (SIGT)
    • sonoa → Sono
    • timetravel → timeravel8 or Machinecoin (MAC)
    • timetravel10 → Bitcore (BTX)
    • tribus → Denarius (DNR)
    • vanilla → blake256r8vnl (VCash)
    • veltor
    • verthash
    • whirlpool
    • whirlpoolx
    • x11 → Dash
    • x11evo → Revolvercoin (XRE)
    • x11gost → sib (SibCoin)
    • x12 → Galaxie Cash (GCH)
    • x13 → X13
    • x13bcd → bcd
    • x13sm3 → hsr (Hshare)
    • x14 → X14
    • x15 → X15
    • x16r
    • x16rv2
    • x16rt → Gincoin (GIN)
    • x16rt-veil → Veil (VEIL)
    • x16s
    • x17
    • x21s
    • x22i
    • x25x
    • xevan → Bitsend (BSD)
    • yescrypt → Globalboost-Y (BSTY)
    • yescryptr8 → BitZeny (ZNY)
    • yescryptr8g → Koto (KOTO)
    • yescryptr16 → Eli
    • yescryptr32 → WAVI
    • yespower → Cryply
    • yespowerr16 → Yenten (YTN)
    • yespower-b2b → generic yespower + blake2b
    • zr5 → Ziftr

It accepts the following parameters:

  • -a or --algo=ALGO → specify the algorithm to use
  • -N or --param-n → N parameter for scrypt based algos
  • -R or --param-r → R parameter for scrypt based algos
  • -K or --param-key → Key (pers) parameter for algos that use it
  • -o or --url=URL → URL of mining server
  • -O or --userpass=U:P → username:password pair for mining server
  • -u or --user=USERNAME → username for mining server
  • -p or --pass=PASSWORD → password for mining server
  • --cert=FILE → certificate for mining server using SSL
  • -x or --proxy=[PROTOCOL://]HOST[:PORT] → connect through a proxy
  • -t or --threads=N → number of miner threads (default: number of processors)
  • -r or --retries=N → number of times to retry if a network call fails (default: retry indefinitely)
  • --retry-pause=N → time to pause between retries or in seconds(default: 30)
  • --time-limit=N → maximum time [s] to mine before exiting the program.
  • -T or --timeout=N → timeout for long poll and stratum (default: 300 seconds)
  • -s or --scantime=N → upper bound on time spent scanning current work when long polling is unavailable or in seconds(default: 5)
  • --randomize → Randomize scan range start to reduce duplicates
  • -f or --diff-factor → Divide req. difficulty by this factor (std is 1.0)
  • -m or --diff-multiplier Multiply difficulty by this factor (std is 1.0)
  • --hash-meter → Display thread hash rates
  • --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-extranonce → disable Stratum extranonce support
  • --no-redirect → ignore requests to change the URL of the mining server
  • -q or --quiet → disable per-thread hashmeter output
  • --no-color → disable colored output
  • -D or --debug → enable debug output
  • -P or --protocol-dump → verbose dump of protocol-level activities'
  • -B or --background → run the miner in the background
  • --benchmark → run in offline benchmark mode
  • --benchmark-config → run in offline benchmark mode. Test different Cryptonight configurations
  • --cpu-affinity → set process affinity to cpu core(s) or mask0x3 for cores 0 and 1
  • --cpu-priority → set process priority (default: 0 idle or 2 normal to 5 highest)
  • -b or --api-bind=address[:port] → IP address for the miner API or default port is 4048)
  • --api-remote → Allow remote control
  • --max-temp=N → Only mine if cpu temp is less than specified value (linux)
  • --max-rate=N[KMG] → Only mine if net hashrate is less than specified value
  • --max-diff=N → Only mine if net difficulty is less than specified value
  • -c or --config=FILE → load a JSON-format configuration file
  • --data-file → path and name of data file
  • --verify → enable additional time consuming start up tests
  • -V or --version → display version information and exit
  • -y → disable application of MSR mod on the system
  • --no-tune → disable tuning of the miner before mining. Tuning takes 34 minutes.
  • --tune-config=FILE → Point to the already created tune config. Default file created by the miner is tune_config
  • -h or --help → display this help text 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: 9.800
FIRST VSAPI PATTERN FILE: 16.788.07
FIRST VSAPI PATTERN DATE: 18 Jun 2021
VSAPI OPR PATTERN File: 16.789.00
VSAPI OPR PATTERN Date: 19 Jun 2021

Step 1

Trend Micro Predictive Machine Learning detects and blocks malware at the first sign of its existence, before it executes on your system. When enabled, your Trend Micro product detects this malware under the following machine learning name:

     
    • Troj.Win32.TRX.XXPE50FFF045

Step 2

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 3

Identify and terminate files detected as Coinminer.Win64.MALBTC.ANC

[ 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 4

Scan your computer with your Trend Micro product to delete files detected as Coinminer.Win64.MALBTC.ANC. 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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