A group of hackers has targeted thousands of enterprise computers to illegally mine cryptocurrencies, security firm Red Canary found out.
First reported by ZDNet on Monday, the hacker group Blue Mockingbird has been pushing the malware since last December, which was discovered by the Colorado-based security firm earlier this month.
The hackers are specifically targeting public-facing servers running ASP.NET apps using the Telerik framework for their user interface (UI) component. Exploiting the CVE-2019-18935 vulnerability, they plant a web shell on the attacked server and then use the so-called Juicy Potato technique to gain admin-level access.
After gaining access to the servers, the hackers download and install XMRRig, a popular Monero mining application.
If the public-facing server is connected to the company’s internal network, the hackers also try to push the malware miner to the entire network.
“Like any security company, we have limited visibility into the threat landscape and no way of accurately knowing the full scope of this threat,” a spokesperson from the security company told ZDNet.
“This threat, in particular, has affected a very small percentage of the organizations whose endpoints we monitor. However, we observed roughly 1,000 infections within those organizations, and over a short amount of time.”
Evolving ways of hiding illegal activities
Illegal Crypto Mining
Crypto Mining
Cryptocurrency mining is defined as the process through which the transactions of a digital currency are authenticated then published to blockchain. For every crypto transaction conducted, a crypto miner is in charge of authenticating the information which, if approved, is then updated in the blockchain. Currently, the most popular cryptocurrencies being mined are Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Monero, and DASH. How is Cryptocurrency Mined?The process of crypto mining itself involves the solving of complex mathematical equations through the application of cryptographic hash functions. The crypto miner who can solve the solution first can authorize that cryptocurrency transaction while also receiving small cryptocurrency payments in exchange for services rendered. Crypto mining is competitive, tedious, and generally requires that miners possess advanced computers with specialized hardware, increased processing power, and an unwavering internet connection. Electricity, cost of internet, and computing hardware make up the bulk of the expenses that affect the net revenue created through crypto mining. Most cryptocurrency miners generate no than a couple of dollars per day. To perform crypto mining, miners must possess computer hardware that is accompanied by a graphical processing unit (GPU) chip or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Recommended computer brands include both Windows and Linux since non-Windows systems tend to have a difficult configuration process. Once acquired, crypto miners must ensure that they have a constant internet connection, have a means to cool-off hardware, possess a legitimate cryptocurrency mining software.Miners also often require membership with both online mining pools and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Cryptocurrency mining is defined as the process through which the transactions of a digital currency are authenticated then published to blockchain. For every crypto transaction conducted, a crypto miner is in charge of authenticating the information which, if approved, is then updated in the blockchain. Currently, the most popular cryptocurrencies being mined are Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Monero, and DASH. How is Cryptocurrency Mined?The process of crypto mining itself involves the solving of complex mathematical equations through the application of cryptographic hash functions. The crypto miner who can solve the solution first can authorize that cryptocurrency transaction while also receiving small cryptocurrency payments in exchange for services rendered. Crypto mining is competitive, tedious, and generally requires that miners possess advanced computers with specialized hardware, increased processing power, and an unwavering internet connection. Electricity, cost of internet, and computing hardware make up the bulk of the expenses that affect the net revenue created through crypto mining. Most cryptocurrency miners generate no than a couple of dollars per day. To perform crypto mining, miners must possess computer hardware that is accompanied by a graphical processing unit (GPU) chip or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Recommended computer brands include both Windows and Linux since non-Windows systems tend to have a difficult configuration process. Once acquired, crypto miners must ensure that they have a constant internet connection, have a means to cool-off hardware, possess a legitimate cryptocurrency mining software.Miners also often require membership with both online mining pools and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Read this Term is nothing new, and even websites with massive traffic were using the shady technique to monetize their platform.
Given Monero’s anonymity feature and the ability to mine the cryptocurrency with ideal CPU power, it is the favorite among hackers.
Finance Magnates earlier reported that the hackers are using many techniques to conceal the mining process in the affected computers during any inspection.
Recently, hackers also infiltrated the servers of blogging platform Ghost and tech firms LineageOS and Digicert to illegally mine Monero.
A group of hackers has targeted thousands of enterprise computers to illegally mine cryptocurrencies, security firm Red Canary found out.
First reported by ZDNet on Monday, the hacker group Blue Mockingbird has been pushing the malware since last December, which was discovered by the Colorado-based security firm earlier this month.
The hackers are specifically targeting public-facing servers running ASP.NET apps using the Telerik framework for their user interface (UI) component. Exploiting the CVE-2019-18935 vulnerability, they plant a web shell on the attacked server and then use the so-called Juicy Potato technique to gain admin-level access.
After gaining access to the servers, the hackers download and install XMRRig, a popular Monero mining application.
If the public-facing server is connected to the company’s internal network, the hackers also try to push the malware miner to the entire network.
“Like any security company, we have limited visibility into the threat landscape and no way of accurately knowing the full scope of this threat,” a spokesperson from the security company told ZDNet.
“This threat, in particular, has affected a very small percentage of the organizations whose endpoints we monitor. However, we observed roughly 1,000 infections within those organizations, and over a short amount of time.”
Evolving ways of hiding illegal activities
Illegal Crypto Mining
Crypto Mining
Cryptocurrency mining is defined as the process through which the transactions of a digital currency are authenticated then published to blockchain. For every crypto transaction conducted, a crypto miner is in charge of authenticating the information which, if approved, is then updated in the blockchain. Currently, the most popular cryptocurrencies being mined are Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Monero, and DASH. How is Cryptocurrency Mined?The process of crypto mining itself involves the solving of complex mathematical equations through the application of cryptographic hash functions. The crypto miner who can solve the solution first can authorize that cryptocurrency transaction while also receiving small cryptocurrency payments in exchange for services rendered. Crypto mining is competitive, tedious, and generally requires that miners possess advanced computers with specialized hardware, increased processing power, and an unwavering internet connection. Electricity, cost of internet, and computing hardware make up the bulk of the expenses that affect the net revenue created through crypto mining. Most cryptocurrency miners generate no than a couple of dollars per day. To perform crypto mining, miners must possess computer hardware that is accompanied by a graphical processing unit (GPU) chip or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Recommended computer brands include both Windows and Linux since non-Windows systems tend to have a difficult configuration process. Once acquired, crypto miners must ensure that they have a constant internet connection, have a means to cool-off hardware, possess a legitimate cryptocurrency mining software.Miners also often require membership with both online mining pools and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Cryptocurrency mining is defined as the process through which the transactions of a digital currency are authenticated then published to blockchain. For every crypto transaction conducted, a crypto miner is in charge of authenticating the information which, if approved, is then updated in the blockchain. Currently, the most popular cryptocurrencies being mined are Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Monero, and DASH. How is Cryptocurrency Mined?The process of crypto mining itself involves the solving of complex mathematical equations through the application of cryptographic hash functions. The crypto miner who can solve the solution first can authorize that cryptocurrency transaction while also receiving small cryptocurrency payments in exchange for services rendered. Crypto mining is competitive, tedious, and generally requires that miners possess advanced computers with specialized hardware, increased processing power, and an unwavering internet connection. Electricity, cost of internet, and computing hardware make up the bulk of the expenses that affect the net revenue created through crypto mining. Most cryptocurrency miners generate no than a couple of dollars per day. To perform crypto mining, miners must possess computer hardware that is accompanied by a graphical processing unit (GPU) chip or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Recommended computer brands include both Windows and Linux since non-Windows systems tend to have a difficult configuration process. Once acquired, crypto miners must ensure that they have a constant internet connection, have a means to cool-off hardware, possess a legitimate cryptocurrency mining software.Miners also often require membership with both online mining pools and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Read this Term is nothing new, and even websites with massive traffic were using the shady technique to monetize their platform.
Given Monero’s anonymity feature and the ability to mine the cryptocurrency with ideal CPU power, it is the favorite among hackers.
Finance Magnates earlier reported that the hackers are using many techniques to conceal the mining process in the affected computers during any inspection.
Recently, hackers also infiltrated the servers of blogging platform Ghost and tech firms LineageOS and Digicert to illegally mine Monero.
