ESET engineers have discovered a new virus miner LoudMiner

Computer security specialists from ESET discovered a new miner virus called LoudMiner, which runs on both Windows and MacOS and appeared almost a year ago.

It is reported that the miner uses the VirtualBox virtualization system on Windows and QEMU on macOS, which allows it to use the Tiny Core Linux system and work on different operating systems. At the same time, Monero cryptocurrency is mined using XMRig.

Engineers noted that the miner enters the system through the installation of pirated software. Such distributions include both a stolen program, a virtualization system and a virtual machine image. In this case, the virus is hidden in the tools for processing audio and video, so that users do not even realize that the increased processor load is caused by a miner virus, and not the main program.

“The decision to use virtual machines instead of a more flexible solution is quite remarkable, and this is not what we usually see,” said cybersecurity experts.

It is also reported that three types of LoudMiner, designed for the MacOS system, and only one for Windows, were discovered.

Earlier this month, cyber security specialists from Trend Micro discovered a new miner virus, BlackSquid, aimed at hiding the hidden mining of Monero cryptocurrency on user devices.
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