Gpu mining litecoin 2018 code#

Crypters are tools that employ encryption, obfuscation, and code manipulation techniques to keep their tools and malware fully undetectable (FUD). Underground Advertisements for MinersД«ecause most miner utilities are small, open-sourced tools, many criminals rely on crypters. Due to these inherent privacy-focused features and CPU-mining profitability, Monero has become an attractive option for cyber criminals. This feature is critical to the Monero developers and allows for CPU mining to remain feasible and profitable. The Monero blockchain also uses what's called a 'memory-hard' hashing algorithm called CryptoNight and, unlike Bitcoin's SHA-256 algorithm, it deters application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip mining. Monero also employs a protocol that generates multiple, unique single-use addresses that can only be associated with the payment recipient and are unfeasible to be revealed through blockchain analysis, ensuring that Monero transactions are unable to be linked while also being cryptographically secure. Unlike many cryptocurrencies, Monero uses a unique technology called 'ring signatures,' which shuffles users' public keys to eliminate the possibility of identifying a particular user, ensuring it is untraceable. The majority of recent cryptojacking operations have overwhelmingly focused on mining Monero, an open-source cryptocurrency based on the CryptoNote protocol, as a fork of Bytecoin. It is probable that at least a subset of actors prefer cryptojacking over other types of financially motivated operations due to the perception that it does not attract as much attention from law enforcement.ДЇigure 2: Underground keyword mentions Monero Is King While searches for certain keywords fail to provide context, the frequency of these cryptocurrency mining-related keywords shows a sharp increase in conversations beginning in 2017 (Figure 2). Keywords that yielded significant volumes include miner, cryptonight, stratum, xmrig, and cpuminer. Figure 1 illustrates the roles miners play in the blockchain network.ДЇigure 1: The role of miners Underground InterestДЇireEye iSIGHT Intelligence has identified eCrime actor interest in cryptocurrency mining-related topics dating back to at least 2009 within underground communities. When a new block is mined, the pool's participants are rewarded with coins. The more computational resources a pool harnesses, the greater the pool's chance of mining a new block. To overcome this, and accelerate the mining process, many miners will join collections of computers called 'pools' that work together to calculate the block hashes. The more blocks that are mined, the more resource-intensive solving the hash becomes. In order for miners to compute the complex hashing of each valid block, they must use a machine's computational resources.

Each block is cryptographically hashed, and must include the hash of the previous block, thus forming the 'chain' in blockchain.

As computers connected to the blockchain network (aka nodes) validate and propagate the transactions across the network, the miners include those transactions into 'blocks' so that they can be added onto the chain. What Is Mining?ДЄs transactions occur on a blockchain, those transactions must be validated and propagated across the network. This blog post discusses the various trends that we have been observing related to cryptojacking activity, including cryptojacking modules being added to popular malware families, an increase in drive-by cryptomining attacks, the use of mobile apps containing cryptojacking code, cryptojacking as a threat to critical infrastructure, and observed distribution mechanisms. These operations include malicious cryptocurrency mining (also referred to as cryptojacking), the collection of cryptocurrency wallet credentials, extortion activity, and the targeting of cryptocurrency exchanges. Many actors have also attempted to capitalize on the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, and subsequent rising price, by conducting various operations aimed at them. This interest has increased in recent years, stemming far beyond the desire to simply use cryptocurrencies as a method of payment for illicit tools and services. Cyber criminals tend to favor cryptocurrencies because they provide a certain level of anonymity and can be easily monetized.