Browser based crypto mining dutch
Four years ago, the Scrubgrass power plant in Venango County, Pennsylvania, was on the brink of financial ruin as energy customers preferred to buy cheap natural gas or renewables. Then Scrubgrass pivoted to Bitcoin. Today, through a holding company based in Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, called Stronghold Digital Mining that bought the plant, Scrubgrass burns enough coal waste to power about 1, cryptocurrency mining computers. These computers, known as miners, are packed into shipping containers next to the power plant, the company stated in documents filed with the U. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of its initial public offering.
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- Some states lure crypto miners to keep their coal plants alive
- Bitcoin Miner Pool
- Mozilla pauses crypto donations amid climate impact debate
- New Research: Crypto-mining Drives Almost 90% of All Remote Code Execution Attacks
- How bitcoin mining can support the energy transition
- Bitcoin miners align with fossil fuel firms, alarming environmentalists
- Russia considers China-like ban on crypto mining and use
- What is a Crypto Mining Bot?
Some states lure crypto miners to keep their coal plants alive
In December , 88 percent of all remote code execution RCE attacks sent a request to an external source to try to download a crypto-mining malware. These attacks try to exploit vulnerabilities in the web application source code, mainly remote code execution vulnerabilities, in order to download and run different crypto-mining malware on the infected server. RCE vulnerabilities are one of the most dangerous of its kind as attackers may execute malicious code in the vulnerable server. Have you ever wondered what kind of malicious code attackers want to execute?
The answer in most cases is — any code that earns the attackers a lot of money with little effort and as quickly as possible. During a recent research project, we saw an extremely large spike of RCE attacks.
A remote code execution vulnerability allows attackers to run arbitrary code on the vulnerable server. For example, in a previous post we discussed RCE vulnerabilities related to insecure deserialization. In these types of vulnerabilities attackers can tamper with serialized objects that are sent to the web application. Then, after the object is deserialized, malicious code will run in the vulnerable server. In our current research we focused on RCE attacks where the payload included an attempt to send a request to an external location.
The method of sending such requests differs depending on the operating system and the desired result. For example, attackers targeting Windows servers, used a Powershell command to download a file from an external location figure 1.
Attackers targeting Linux servers, used Bash scripts, and wget or curl commands for the same purpose. Figure 1- Powershell command to download malicious script on a vulnerable Windows server. In the past, RCE payloads that sent requests to an external location included mostly attempts to infect servers with malware that added the vulnerable servers to a DDoS botnet.
This kind of attack is mostly profit based since the attackers can provide DDoS for hire services. In recent months, there has been a sharp increase in attempts to infect vulnerable servers with crypto-mining malware see figure 2. This kind of malware allows attackers to use the CPU or sometimes GPU power of the vulnerable server to mine crypto currencies.
In this kind of attack, the attackers eliminate the need to sell their product to a third party and thus achieve a faster return on investment. According to our research, in December almost 90 percent of all the malicious payloads in RCE attacks that sent a request to an external location were crypto-mining malware.
Crypto mining uses computation power to solve difficult mathematical puzzles called proof of work functions. Each time such a problem is solved, the miner who solved it gets a fixed amount of coins, depending on which coin she or he was mining. For example, currently, bitcoin miners get But solving this puzzle alone is not an easy task, and a lot of computing power is needed. Hence, miners use mining pools to increase their chances of getting paid.
Mining pools are platforms that allow miners to work together and share computation resources to solve the puzzle. Once it is solved, the coins are divided between the participants of the pool according to how much computation power they each contributed. To own and exchange crypto currency you need a crypto wallet. They store cryptographic keys which allow the user access to their currencies. Each wallet has an address which can be used to sign the wallet into a mining pool and send the profit of the mining process to the wallet.
Another important aspect of crypto mining is the required hardware. Bitcoin is likely the most popular crypto currency and mining it is practically impossible using only regular CPU. To mine Bitcoin a specific hardware is required or requires the use of GPU which allows more parallelization of the computation, thus improving the mining process. Other crypto currencies, like Monero, are newer and can be mined using regular CPU.
In recent attacks we have seen a lot of malware using it to mine Monero. Bitcoin is the arguably the most popular crypto currency that exists, but still we have not seen a single attack trying to infect servers with Bitcoin mining malware. Besides the fact that special hardware is required to mine Bitcoin while regular CPU can be used to mine the crypto currencies mentioned above, there is another notable reason.
Bitcoin transactions are not private and coins can be traced back along the transaction chain. All the cryptocurrencies that we saw attackers trying to mine are more anonymous.
This makes these anonymous crypto currencies a favorite for hackers to mine illegally on vulnerable servers. Monero is also used as a way to launder money made illegally. For example there were reports that Bitcoins earned by the WannaCry ransomware were moved to Monero, probably as a means of hiding the source of the money.
Next, we will follow an attack found in the wild, and through it try to understand the way that a crypto-mining malware works. The following attack figure 3 was found in the post body of an HTTP request that was trying to exploit an RCE vulnerability to send a wget command to download and run a script. Figure 3- Code injected in a parameter trying to download and run a crypto-mining script.
First, it kills processes that are running in the background of the server figure 4. These processes include mostly competing crypto miners, but also security controls and processes that use a lot of CPU. The way this script identifies competing crypto miners is either by killing the processes with known crypto-mining software, or by killing processes that include specific IPs or parts of crypto wallets. Figure 4- The script kills processes that are running in the background. Figure 5- Gaining persistence by adding a new cron job.
Figure 6- Downloading and running the crypto-mining malware. Figure 7- Dynamic configuration file containing the mining pool and the crypto wallet of the attacker. In the downloaded configuration files we found, there were active Monero wallets that belonged to the attackers.
By tracing the wallets and the mining pools, we saw the amount of money made using crypto mining. Figure The wallet was suspended from the pool due to botnet activity. Most of the RCE payloads in our data contained crypto miners for Monero. But there were some attacks in which the payload was a crypto miner for other currencies. One such currency is Electroneum, a relatively new crypto currency published in September This is a UK-based crypto currency designed specifically for mobile users.
Figure 11 shows one of the Electroneum mining pools found in the payload which attackers tried to run. Figure Electroneum mining pool stats.
Figure Electroneum balance of an attacker. Figure Karbowanec wallet found in one of the attacks. Last December almost 90 percent of all the RCE attacks that sent a request to an external source included a crypto-mining malware. Attackers can make a lot of money off your server resources with crypto mining and there are many different crypto currencies to mine. The anonymity of transactions and the easy use of regular CPU make this attack very popular among hackers who want to earn money, and fast.
A crypto-mining malware causes denial of service to the infected server. With most of the server computation power directed to crypto mining, the server is rendered unavailable. Also, getting rid of the malware is not so easy due to its persistence as it adds a scheduled task to download and run it again after a certain period of time. To protect web applications from crypto-mining malware, the initial attack must be blocked.
Organizations using affected servers are advised to use the latest vendor patch to mitigate these kind of vulnerabilities. An alternative to manual patching is virtual patching. Virtual patching actively protects web applications from attacks, reducing the window of exposure and decreasing the cost of emergency patches and fix cycles. Learn more about how to protect your web applications from vulnerabilities with Imperva WAF solutions.
Application Security Research Labs. Nadav Avital , Gilad Yehudai. RCE vulnerabilities and payload families A remote code execution vulnerability allows attackers to run arbitrary code on the vulnerable server.
Figure 9- Amount of Monero mined each day. Try Imperva for Free Protect your business for 30 days on Imperva. Start Now. Research Labs. Kunal Anand. Kunal Anand , Nadav Avital. Application Security Network Security. Pamela Weaver. Application Delivery Application Security Network Security. Bruce Lynch. Thank you! Keep an eye on that inbox for the latest news and industry updates. Fill out the form and our experts will be in touch shortly to book your personal demo. An Imperva security specialist will contact you shortly.
Bitcoin Miner Pool
Source: Morningstar. The performance quoted represents past performance which is no guarantee of future results. Future performance may be lower or higher than current performance. Investment returns will fluctuate so that investors' shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original costs.
Mozilla pauses crypto donations amid climate impact debate
The Australian government has just recognized digital currency as a legal payment method. Since July 1, purchases done using digital currencies such as bitcoin are exempt from the country's Goods and Services Tax to avoid double taxation. As such, traders and investors will not be levied taxes for buying and selling them through legal exchange platforms. Japan, which legitimized bitcoin as a form of payment last April, already expects more than 20, merchants to accept bitcoin payments. Other countries are joining the bandwagon, albeit partially: businesses and some of the public organizations in Switzerland, Norway , and the Netherlands. In a recent study , unique, active users of cryptocurrency wallets are pegged between 2. But what does the acceptance and adoption of digital currencies have to do with online threats? A lot, actually. As cryptocurrencies like bitcoin gain real-world traction, so will cybercriminal threats that abuse it. But how, exactly?
New Research: Crypto-mining Drives Almost 90% of All Remote Code Execution Attacks
The negative environmental impact of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has been widely covered in the press in recent weeks and months, and their volatility has also been flagged as a cause for concern. Nevertheless, the UN believes that blockchain, the technology lying behind these online currencies, could be of great benefit to those fighting the climate crisis, and help bring about a more sustainable global economy. This process requires so much energy, that the Bitcoin network is estimated to consume more energy than several countries, including Kazakhstan and the Netherlands. And, as fossil-fuelled power plants still make up a major portion of the global energy mix, Bitcoin mining can be said to be partly responsible for the production of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change although, so far, the impact on the climate is far less than that of heavy hitters such as the agriculture, construction, energy, and transport sectors. Another problem is the amount of energy needed for each transaction, which is enormous in comparison to traditional credit cards: for example, each Mastercard transaction is estimated to use just 0.
How bitcoin mining can support the energy transition
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Bitcoin miners align with fossil fuel firms, alarming environmentalists
If was the year of the ransomware attack, then , insofar as it can be defined by malware, was the year of cryptojacking. In early , the cryptocurrency market hit unprecedented levels, leading to a boom in cryptocurrency mining, both legal and illicit. And now, while the dizzying highs of cryptocurrency prices and the bitcoin bubble is it fair to call it a bubble now? Cryptojacking works by—you guessed it—hijacking other people's processing power and using it to mine cryptocurrencies. This is typically achieved with scripts that run behind the scenes on websites, though it's also possible to hijack machines and servers to run full-blown cryptocurrency mining software, which is either installed by malware or by rogue employees. As Peter from Spiceworks put it , "Cryptojacking is a bit like someone else taking out your car and earning money with it on Uber without you knowing, collecting the profits behind your back, and hoping you don't notice. Or, to put it another way, imagine a stranger is using your house when you're off at work, using the water, the electricity, the heat— it's a bit like that.
Russia considers China-like ban on crypto mining and use
Register Now. This item in japanese. Apr 30, 2 min read. Sergio De Simone.
What is a Crypto Mining Bot?
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Curious about Bitcoin and the Netherlands? Here is a quick review of what Bitcoin is and how it could change life in Holland in the near future. Patience, however; remains the great obstacle both when comprehension and application seem like distant, even foreign, ideas. Treat that like a good thing. It will serve all of us to first get on a page with some kinship to our universal ignorance. Namely, what exactly is Bitcoin?
A once-dormant power plant is humming with activity outside Pittsburgh as thousands of miners work 24 hours a day. The first to solve the equation is rewarded with the digital financial token known as bitcoin. But the large amount of power needed to run these computers has re-ignited a debate in Pennsylvania and around the country about the potential climate consequences of cryptocurrency.
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