Muse Miner

The Muse Miner is a stealthy crypto-miner that can hijack the hardware resources of the infected systems and force them into mining a specific cryptocurrency. The threat is being offered for sale on hacker forums. Wannabe cybercriminals can gain access to the Muse Miner for $25 per week or $80 for a whole month. There also is an option for a lifetime subscription priced at $400. The Muse Miner can generate Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) coins.

The Muse Miner is equipped with an expanded set of features compared to some of the other threats in this malware category. It utilizes an Anti-VM technique to scan the system in an attempt to pick up signs of virtualization or sandbox environment. Furthermore, the threat is built to remain hidden on the compromised devices for a prolonged period. Instead of completely taking over the CPU, GPU or ASIC hardware and mining as much as possible before the user removes it, the Muse Miner can limit or even suspend its action upon certain triggers.

For example, the threat will enter a dormant state whenever users start a program in full-screen mode. It also attempts to hide itself from software tools capable of detecting it. The Muse Miner will run at full capacity only when the breached device is idle, i.e. not being in active use. Furthermore, the Muse Miner tries to blend with the other legitimate files on the system by disguising itself as a system file. The attackers also can send other software tools or payloads via a dedicated Telegram bot.