Butler Miner Trojan

The Butler Miner Trojan is a malicious version of the XMRig CPU Mining tool. This is software that is used to mine cryptocurrency. Criminals have adapted this into threats like the Butler Miner Trojan to take advantage of computer users, installing the Butler Miner Trojan on the victim's computer and then using the resources of the victim's computer to mine cryptocurrency for the criminals. The Butler Miner Trojan is being delivered to victims through the use of an unsafe free program for mounting virtual drives known as 'MagicDisk.' This program will be distributed online and will be bundled with the Butler Miner Trojan. MagicDisk works and does what is advertised. However, the version of MagicDisk distributed with The Butler Miner Trojan will install this threat onto the victim's computer and use the victim's computer to mine cryptocurrency, resulting in many unwanted effects on the victim's PC.

The Butler that is Serving Criminals

Once installed, the Butler Miner Trojan will run in the background, loading its code into the Explorer.exe memory process, and will make it unlikely that many anti-virus programs will detect it. Once the Butler Miner Trojan has been installed, it will cause this file process to use a very large percentage of the CPU processing power, close to 100%. This will result in numerous performance issues on the affected computer. The Butler Miner Trojan also will make changes to the affected computers' Windows Registry, allowing The Butler Miner Trojan and its associated program, MagicDisk, to start up automatically when Windows starts up.

How the Butler Miner Trojan Works

The Butler Miner Trojan is designed to take over the victim's computer, using most of the affected computer's processing power and resources to mine Monero (XMR), a well-known cryptocurrency. This will cause the infected computer to run slowly and crash frequently. The complex operations needed to mine cryptocurrency occurring in the background will make it nearly impossible for the affected computer to carry out normal operations. While the explorer.exe file process does not use more than 10% of the CPU's processing power, when the Butler Miner Trojan is installed, it is typical for it to use more than 75% of available resources at all time. This is a clear indicator of the presence of the Butler Miner Trojan on the victim's computer. This will cause numerous symptoms on the victim's computer, including the following:

• The computers affected by the Butler Miner Trojan will become very slow and unresponsive. This is because most of the affected computer's resources will be engaged by the Butler Miner Trojan in mining Monero and generating profits for the criminals responsible for the attack.
• Due to the high resources demanded by the Butler Miner Trojan, the computers affected by this attack will crash or freeze frequently, becoming unstable and very difficult to use effectively.
• The Butler Miner Trojan's high-resource use will result in higher than normal electricity consumption and overheat. The affected computer's fan will be engaged more than normal and will become noisier and hotter than normal, which may make it more difficult to use.
• Operations requiring a high-processing need, such as video or loading of certain online components, will become near impossible or extremely slow on computers affected by malware like the Butler Miner Trojan.
• Malware like The Butler Miner Trojan may not be installed alone. If the Butler Miner Trojan has been installed on your computer, it is highly likely that other malware (with its own sets of symptoms) has been installed on your computer. The components designed to obfuscate the Butler Miner Trojan and interfere with security software also may have been installed, causing the operating system and security software on the victim's computer to crash.