Security News > 2022 > December > Researchers smell a cryptomining Chaos RAT targeting Linux systems

A type of cryptomining malware targeting Linux-based systems has added capabilities by incorporating an open source remote access trojan called Chaos RAT with several advanced functions that bad guys can use to control remote operating systems.

Like earlier, similar versions of the miner that also target Linux operating systems, the code kills competing malware and resources that affect cryptocurrency mining performance.

The newer malware then establishes persistence "By altering /etc/crontab file, a UNIX task scheduler that, in this case, downloads itself every 10 minutes from Pastebin," wrote Trend Micro researchers David Fiser and Alfredo Oliveira.

It downloads an XMRig miner, a configuration file, another payload that continually kills competing malware, and the Chaos RAT, which is written in Go and has a ton of capabilities including restarting and shutting down the victim's machine.

"An interesting trait of the malware family we intercepted is that the address and access token are passed as compilation flags and hardcoded inside the RAT client, replacing any data inside variables from the main code," the researchers wrote.

"On the surface, the incorporation of a RAT into the infection routine of a cryptocurrency mining malware might seem relatively minor," Fiser and Oliveira said.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/12/13/cryptoming_chaos_rat_targets_linux/