Analysis by: Mariefher Grace Villanueva

ALIASES:

Gen:Variant.Application.XMRig.2 (BITDEFENDER), Riskware/CoinMiner (FORTINET)

 PLATFORM:

Windows

 OVERALL RISK RATING:
 DAMAGE POTENTIAL:
 DISTRIBUTION POTENTIAL:
 REPORTED INFECTION:
 SYSTEM IMPACT RATING:
 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. It may be dropped by other malware.

It does not have any propagation routine.

It does not have any backdoor routine.

It connects to certain websites to send and receive information. It uses the system's central processing unit (CPU) and/or graphical processing unit (GPU) resources to mine cryptocurrency.

  TECHNICAL DETAILS

File Size: 6,455,808 bytes
File Type: EXE
Memory Resident: No
Initial Samples Received Date: 23 Mar 2026
Payload: Connects to URLs/IPs, Steals information

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 dropped by the following malware:

Propagation

This Coinminer does not have any propagation routine.

Backdoor Routine

This Coinminer does not have any backdoor routine.

Rootkit Capabilities

This Coinminer does not have rootkit capabilities.

Information Theft

This Coinminer gathers the following data:

  • Public IP Address
  • CPU vendor, features, model, and specifications
  • Number of CPU cores/threads
  • L1/L2/L3 cache sizes
  • NUMA topology
  • Available RAM
  • GPU specifications (if OpenCL/CUDA enabled)
  • DMI/SMBIOS system information
  • Kernel/OS version
  • User active/inactive status

Other Details

This Coinminer connects to the following website to send and receive information:

  • stratum+ssl://{BLOCKED}x.xmrig.com:443
  • donate.ssl.{BLOCKED}g.com
  • donate.v2.{BLOCKED}g.com
  • https://api.{BLOCKED}g.com
  • https://{BLOCKED}g.com/benchmark/%s
  • https://{BLOCKED}g.com/wizard
  • https://{BLOCKED}g.com/docs/algorithms

It does the following:

  • It references the following configuration files:
    • %Program Files%\Hola\app\config.json
    • %User Profile%\.xmrig.json
    • %User Profile%\.config\xmrig.json
  • When run via the command-line, it accepts the following parameters:
    • -o, --url=URL → URL of mining pool
    • -a, --algo=ALGO → Mining algorithm (e.g., rx/0, cn/r, argon2)
    • -u, --user=USERNAME → Username/wallet address for mining pool
    • -p, --pass=PASSWORD → Password for mining pool
    • -O, --userpass=U:P → Username:password pair
    • -x, --proxy=HOST:PORT → Connect through SOCKS5 proxy
    • -k, --keepalive → Send keepalive packets to prevent timeout
    • --coin=COIN → Specify cryptocurrency to mine
    • --rig-id=ID → Rig identifier for pool
    • --tls → Enable TLS/SSL for pool connection
    • --tls-fingerprint=HEX → Pool TLS certificate fingerprint
    • --dns-ttl=N → DNS cache TTL in seconds
    • --dns-ipv6 → Prefer IPv6 for DNS
    • -r, --retries=N → Retry count before switch to backup server
    • -R, --retry-pause=N → Pause between retries in seconds
    • --nicehash → Enable NiceHash compatibility mode
    • --daemon → Use daemon RPC instead of pool
    • --daemon-poll-interval=N → Daemon poll interval in milliseconds
    • --self-select=URL → Self-select block templates URL
    • --submit-to-origin → Submit shares to both pool and daemon
    • -t, --threads=N → Number of CPU mining threads
    • --cpu-affinity=N → Set CPU affinity bitmask
    • --cpu-priority=N → Process priority (0=idle, 5=highest)
    • --cpu-max-threads-hint=N → Max CPU threads percentage (0-100)
    • --cpu-memory-pool=N → Persistent memory pool size in KB
    • --cpu-no-yield → Prefer maximum hashrate over system response
    • --no-huge-pages → Disable huge pages support
    • --huge-pages-jit → Enable huge pages for JIT code
    • --asm=ASM → ASM optimization (auto/none/intel/ryzen/bulldozer)
    • --av=N → Algorithm variation (0-auto)
    • --no-cpu → Disable CPU backend entirely
    • --randomx-init=N → Number of threads for dataset init
    • --randomx-no-numa → Disable NUMA support for RandomX
    • --randomx-mode=MODE → RandomX mode (auto/fast/light)
    • --randomx-1gb-pages → Use 1GB huge pages for RandomX dataset
    • --randomx-wrmsr=N → MSR mod for Ryzen (0-15, -1 to disable)
    • --randomx-no-rdmsr → Disable MSR reads
    • --randomx-cache-qos → Enable cache QoS
    • --opencl → Enable OpenCL GPU mining
    • --opencl-devices=N → Comma-separated list of GPU devices
    • --opencl-platform=N → OpenCL platform index
    • --opencl-loader=PATH → Path to OpenCL library
    • --opencl-no-cache → Disable OpenCL kernel cache
    • --cuda → Enable CUDA GPU mining
    • --cuda-loader=PATH → Path to CUDA plugin (xmrig-cuda.dll)
    • --cuda-devices=N → Comma-separated list of CUDA devices
    • --cuda-bfactor-hint=N → Bfactor hint for CUDA
    • --cuda-bsleep-hint=N → Bsleep hint for CUDA
    • --no-nvml → Disable NVML GPU stats
    • --api-worker-id=ID → Worker ID for API
    • --api-id=ID → Instance ID for API
    • --http-enabled → Enable HTTP API
    • --http-host=HOST → HTTP API bind host
    • --http-port=N → HTTP API port
    • --http-access-token=TOKEN → HTTP API access token
    • --http-no-restricted → Enable full remote access to HTTP API
    • -l, --log-file=FILE → Log output to file
    • -S, --syslog → Use syslog for output
    • --print-time=N → Print hashrate every N seconds
    • --no-color → Disable colored output
    • --verbose → Verbose/debug output
    • -c, --config=FILE → Load config from JSON file
    • -B, --background → Run in background (daemon mode)
    • -V, --version → Print version and exit
    • -h, --help → Print help and exit
    • --dry-run → Test configuration without mining
    • --bench=N → Run benchmark for N hashes
    • --stress → Run stress test
    • --donate-level=N → Donation level percentage (0-100)
    • --donate-over-proxy=N → Control donation routing through proxy
    • --pause-on-battery → Pause mining on battery power
    • --pause-on-active=N → Pause mining when user active for N seconds
    • --no-watch → Disable config file watching
  • When run via the command-line, it shows the following GUI:
  • Attempts to modify the following system settings:
    • Enables large/huge pages for memory optimization
    • May write to MSR (Model-Specific Registers) via WinRing0 driver
    • Sets process/thread priority for mining optimization
  • Supports optional WinRing0 kernel driver for MSR-based CPU optimization to improve mining performance

It does not exploit any vulnerability.

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: 20.854.01
FIRST VSAPI PATTERN DATE: 30 Mar 2026
VSAPI OPR PATTERN File: 20.855.00
VSAPI OPR PATTERN Date: 31 Mar 2026

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.XXPE50FFF103

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

Note that not all files, folders, and registry keys and entries are installed on your computer during this malware's/spyware's/grayware's execution. This may be due to incomplete installation or other operating system conditions. If you do not find the same files/folders/registry information, please proceed to the next step.

Step 4

Search and delete these files

[ Learn More ]
There may be some files that are hidden. Please make sure you check the Search Hidden Files and Folders checkbox in the "More advanced options" option to include all hidden files and folders in the search result.
  • %Program Files%\Hola\app\config.json
  • %User Profile%\.xmrig.json
  • %User Profile%\.config\xmrig.json

Step 5

Scan your computer with your Trend Micro product to delete files detected as Coinminer.Win64.MALXMR.L. 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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