PUA_TOOLXMR.GA-ELF

September 03, 2018
 Analysis by: John Anthony Banes
 ALIASES:

PUA/ANDR.CoinMiner.ymgcn (Antivir); a variant of Linux/CoinMiner.AN (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:

1,378,332 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 monero cryptocurrency (XMR) and it requires credentials for the mining server.
  • 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
    • --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
    • -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/xmrig-proxy support
    • --print-time=N → print hashrate report every N seconds
    • --api-port=N → port for the miner API
    • --api-access-token=T → access token for API
    • --api-worker-id=ID → custom worker-id for API
    • -h, --help → display this help and exit
    • -V, --version → output version information 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_TOOLXMR.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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