IdleBuddy Cryptomining Malware
IdleBuddy is the name of a malicious crypto miner application disguised as a more innocuous app.
The description you will see in IdleBuddy's interface tells users that the application is used to "calculate complex equations and solve problems". Sadly, this is a lie. The only "problem" you will be solving while using IdleBuddy is filling up the crypto wallet of the person distributing and operating the malicious application.
In reality, IdleBuddy is a piece of crypto-mining malware. The program claims to only use your computer's resources when your system is idle, which is also not true. IdleBuddy, like the majority of crypto mining malware, will take up all available CPU and GPU resources on your system and harness them to mine cryptocurrency for the program's operator.
Of course, this will make your system unstable and barely usable in most cases, as crypto mining tasks are extremely taxing on hardware, especially when it's a regular home computer and not a dedicated mining rig. You may discover your computer is unresponsive for seconds at a time, has issues loading web pages, or navigating folders and directories on your drives. This is all the result of excessive hardware resource use on part of IdleBuddy.
To reel potential victims in and keep them interested, even if they do notice their systems are slowed down, IdleBuddy dangles the promise of unspecified "rewards". Of course, there are no rewards to be found here and this text is only a carrot dangled in front of a potentially curious victim, to make them endure the laggy state of their system for a few more days, hopefully, weeks, if the malware author's plan works out.
Similar applications should be uninstalled immediately as they have no real purpose apart from generating profit for their authors, at the expense of the victims who have the malware installed on their systems. IdleBuddy can be found in bundle installers - software bundles distributed through free download portals. Bundle installers are common distribution vehicles for a lot of potentially unwanted programs and adware and can include other types of malware such as IdleBuddy or similar resource-hogging malicious apps.
