Analysis by: Byron Jon Gelera
ALIASES:

not-a-virus:HEUR:RiskTool.Linux.BitCoinMiner.a (Kaspersky); Linux/Miner (AVG)

 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 may arrive bundled with malware packages as a malware component. It 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: 166,114 bytes
File Type: ELF
Memory Resident: Yes
Initial Samples Received Date: 29 Mar 2017
Payload: Mines bitcoins

Arrival Details

This Hacking Tool may arrive bundled with malware packages as a malware component.

It 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 Hacking Tool does the following:

  • This hacking tool is a coin miner used to generate bitcoins.
  • 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:
    • -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
      --cert=FILE == certificate for mining server using SSL
    • -x, --proxy=[PROTOCOL://]HOST[:PORT] == connect through a proxy
    • -t, --threads=N == number of miner threads (default: number of processors)
    • -r, --retries=N == number of times to retry if a network call fails (default: retry indefinitely)
    • -R, --retry-pause=N == time to pause between retries, in seconds (default: 30)
    • -T, --timeout=N timeout for long polling, in seconds (default: none)
    • -s, --scantime=N == upper bound on time spent scanning current work when long polling is unavailable, in seconds (default: 5)
      --no-longpoll == disable X-Long-Polling support
      --no-stratum == disable X-Stratum support
      --no-redirect == ignore requests to change the URL of the mining server
    • -q, --quiet == disable per-thread hashmeter output
    • -D, --debug == enable debug output
    • -P, --protocol-dump == verbose dump of protocol-level activities
    • -S, --syslog == use system log for output messages
    • -B, --background == run the miner in the background
      --benchmark == run in offline benchmark mode
    • -c, --config=FILE == load a JSON-format configuration file
    • -V, --version == display version information and exit
    • -h, --help == display this help text and exit

  SOLUTION

Minimum Scan Engine: 9.850
SSAPI PATTERN File: 1.825.00
SSAPI PATTERN Date: 06 Apr 2017

Scan your computer with your Trend Micro product to delete files detected as HKTL_MINERD.GA. 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 this Knowledge Base page for more information.


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