Autom Malware Brings Cryptocurrency Mining Modules
Even though the profitability of cryptocurrency mining malware is gradually weaning off, cybercriminals are still experimenting with type of malware. One of the latest Trojanized cryptocurrency miners is called the Autom Malware, and it runs via a basic script file. According to cybersecurity experts, the first recorded attacks of the Autom Malware date back to 2019. The majority of them were carried against honeypot servers – special servers that are left in a vulnerable state intentionally. Security researchers use them to attract malware and hacking attempts, enabling them to quickly get their hands on the latest malware families.
What is the Autom Malware?
The Autom Malware's distribution technique is not clear. The criminals might be exploring various tricks to deliver the payload to their victims – email spam, fake downloads, deceptive ads, or even pirated software and games. The attack is carried out with the deployment of a malicious shell script called 'autom.sh.'
The script executes additional tasks in addition to deploying the final cryptocurrency miner. For starters, it creates a new user account under the alias akay and attempts to grant it administrator privileges. If successful, all cryptocurrency mining tasks will eb executed through the account in question. Although the initial versions of the Autom Malware did not try to get around security software, later updates introduced such measures. The developers of the implant attempted to heavily obfuscate and encoded large parts of the code, making it difficult for analysis.
The cryptocurrency mining operation can cause some annoying issues that users will tackle:
- Increased CPU temperatures because of the increased power usage.
- Reducing the lifespan of the CPU, fan, and even power supply.
- Hindered system performance because the miner utilizes most of the available CPU resources.
- Issues with system stability if the CPU is not cooled well enough.
Users can tackle cryptocurrency malware by running an up-to-date antivirus scanner, and scanning their entire computer.
