Digital currency mining is the new trend in cybercrime, and WinstarNssmMiner is another example of a coinminer targeting Windows systems in a Monero mining effort.
Malware was recently detected by the security company 360 Total Security, και όπως επισημαίνουν οι ερευνητές, απαριθμεί περισσότερα από 500.000 θύματα μέσα σε space just three days.
The highly aggressive coinminer spreads through specially designed campaigns and uses all the resources of Windows systems to extract Monero. It even uses several protection techniques to bypass the solutions antivirus and to ensure that the processes it starts are not interfered with.
Specifically, once it enters a system, WinstarNssmMiner monitors the activity of installed antivirus protection software, and in the event that a virus scan is performed it temporarily suspends its malicious activity.
When it considers it safe, malware creates two different system processes called svchost.exe (svchost.exe or Service Host is a standard Windows process), in an effort to not be understood. One process starts crypto mining, while the other monitors antivirus solutions by interrupting any activity when performing a virus scan.
WinstarNssmMiner has another surprise in store for Windows users, as if its action is discovered and svchost.exe termination is attempted, the malware crashes Windows, leading to a BSOD. This is because the malware defines svchost.exe as CriticalProcess, causing Windows to terminate it computer when terminating the malicious process.
According to researchers, malware is now spreading to more systems around the world, and the easiest way to keep it safe is to use up-to-date antivirus solutions but also specialized web mining protection applications.
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