NiceHash Miner

The NiceHash Miner software is a tool that you can find at https://miner.nicehash.com and download for free. The NiceHash Miner software is designed to verify crypto-currency payments (mine) and earn a fee for the user. The NiceHash Miner is a legitimate application that enables users to benefit from available hardware and earn a side income. The NiceHash Miner application supports a wide range of Nvidia, AMD and Intel hardware. The NiceHash Miner supports automatic algorithm switching and payment platforms like Coinbase and Payeer. The NiceHash Miner is used to mine for Bitcoin, which is one of the most used digital coins at the time of writing.

Unfortunately, the NiceHash Miner has earned a portion of a bad reputation due to misuse by cybercriminals. A modified version of NiceHash Miner has been found running on the computers of unsuspecting users. An investigation confirmed that the NiceHash Miner software had been modified to work as a crypto-jacker and operate on compromised systems silently. The NiceHash crypto-jacker is not too different from the original, but it is adapted to create fake instances of Java, randomly named process and hijack processing power. The NiceHash crypto-jacker comes with an encrypted configuration file and remote access capabilities.

The threat actors behind the NiceHash crypto-jacker can download updates to compromised machines and reconfigured nodes to connect to new mining pools. The NiceHash crypto-jacker is believed to be dispersed via pirated games, illicit activators for Windows and riskware. PC users that notice erratic processor behavior and program instability may wish to scan their devices for a crypto-jacker like NiceHash and related programs.