Jul 3, 2017

d---, so i dunno what happened, i been at the farm the past couple days so my PC has been off for like 4 or so days, turned it on before to have some dodgy fucky looking cmd window pop up called syswin64...

So i do my virus scan immediately, and it turns out i got a heap of "bitcoinminer.exe" programs on my PC

I'm assuming it's nothing too serious and some c---- just used like a few minutes of my PC's processor to farm 0.00000000000000000000000001 bitcoins. Anyone have any more info on this? I googled the names of the .exe's and the tasks running in task manager related to them, all the info i'm finding is on dodgy websites that are pretty much saying "yes this file is a threat" and nothing else, with the occasional "download this software and pay $$ and we will fix it. DO IT IMMEDIATELY!" malwarebytes picked them up though, fairly quick. Just wondering if anyone's heard of hit like this, cause it's pretty f---ing 'what a craftiness' imo, to turn other peoples PC's into bitcoin miners (if that's what happened and I assume it did)

Only guess as to where I got this virus, is inside one of the 200gb worth of games/programs/files/updates etc i downloaded since getting first world internet.

 

Jul 3, 2017

I'm glad I didn't accept that offer you gave in Private SXN

 

Jul 3, 2017

o fuk i forgot that existed for a min lol. well yeah you always run the risk of getting virus' from game downloads, because like anyone could alter the original file etc. i should probably put that warning in my OP. but everyone should be sweet, especially if windows is up to date/you got some kind of anti-virus running. I thought I did but my AVG got jew'd or some s--- so I just ran a malware scan manually and in 20 mins fixed it.

 

Jul 3, 2017

@Slyk stop hacking me bro

 

Jul 3, 2017

So sad news is the virus is probably really old because it sounds like its CPU mining which is terrible for your computer (consistently maxes everything) and doesn't even yield much anymore

Installing Viruses on peoples computers doesn't make you cool

 

Jul 3, 2017

Go to https://forums.malwarebytes.com/ and follow their directions. You'll have to scan your computer, provide a text file, and they'll write you something to remove whatever is left.

 

Jul 3, 2017

you are not very good at IT support tbh. Like lets say i still need help removing this bitcoinminer, you directed me to a forum homepage and said "follow the instructions" lol what instructions?
provide a text file to whom?
obviously i know what you mean but like, to the average person it's not helpful. besides,

lmfao, that's hilarious the watch dogs guy took so long to catch on. But yeah I think this s--- is amazing, kinda like that guy who downloaded a virus like 10 odd years ago then re coded the virus to get into valve's entire server system, just interesting s--- tbqh fam.

 

Jul 3, 2017

Imagine going to the effort of creating a trojan snd then naming the d--- thing bitcoinminer lol like that isnt going to raise a red flag as soon as someone opens their task manager. At least call it something less incriminating like systemupdate or some s---

 

Jul 3, 2017

yeah it's pretty weird, like gr8 idea, but kinda poor execution. from what I gathered, it runs some dodgy but passable looking process like "syswin64" or something similar, that process then tries to open the bitcoinminer.exe every minute or so afterwards, depending on what the trojan puts in your task scheduler. Not only that, but incredibly noticable having a CMD window pop up every minute or so and your PC's performance dropping regularly every minute or two. Like as soon as I turned my PC on and logged in I noticed it lol. I also found out the reason I didn't notice it before was because the files were on my PC, but the processes only start on your next login.

Would be some crazy s---, if they say downgraded this to a much less invasive kind of program, or packaged it inside a popular app, then made it chew through much less performance, like it's unnoticeable. Then cause it's a popular app, tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands of PC's are now farming bitcoins. that's gonna be one rich as f--- bitcoin miner.

 

Jul 3, 2017

Well the thing is I think most people farm bitcoin using their GPUs now and not their CPUs so they could theoretically make it a lot less noticable if they used like 10% of your GPU over 1000s of PCs like you say. Just bundle it in an app that requires some level of video processing power so you know obly users with a GPU will install it. Problem is you'd need to have your bitcoin info inbedded in the code somewhere and soneone smarter could always decompile it and steal your s---

 

Jul 3, 2017

I'm not entirely sure, but I'm fairly certain most bitcoin miners opt for specifically made chips for bitcoin mining now (forgot the name) but those are basically (from what I read) 100x more efficient than CPU/GPU mining. (kinda why this virus seems a little odd, it seems to me like they'd need about a thousand PC's with the virus for it to be a decent amount of mining)

But you're right, it would be in some way shape or form exploitable by someone else. Like i'm not too sure on how it all works but seems completely reasonable someone who knows what they are doing could just change a few lines in the code so the bitcoins are routed to their wallet/account instead of the original.