Crypto-Loot Miner Trojan - How to remove

Crypto-Loot Trojan Miner is similar to CoinHive Miner that we recently investigated. Most security researchers regard the new mining-service as a competitor against CoinHive as most of the mining-websites right now are running its scripts. However, with a Crypto-Loot Miner in the market, some might decide to explore the capacities of this JavaScript library ( Crypto-Loot Is A New Service That Helps Websites Steal Cryptocurrency Using Your CPU Power).

Both of these miners carry a lot of similarities and are founded as legitimate services, but have become useful to hackers as well. Mining of various cryptocurrencies is not considered as a disruptive or unjust activity. In fact, some might decide to mine Monero or Bitcoin whenever they wish. In the official website of Crypto-Loot.com, website-owners are recommended to monetize businesses through their visitors’ web browsers. The miner is described as stealthy, private and fast. More about this browser-based web miner is provided in the aforementioned domain.

Crypto-Loot Trojan Miner can be inserted without authorization and start draining CPU resources

 

Website-owners that decide to take part in the mining of cryptocurrency with Crypto-Loot Miner will be provided a JavaScript file which will be included into a specific site. Then, if visitors are not exploiting mining-blocking techniques, browsers will be transformed into miners. In addition to this, ESET has also regarded a very persistent Monero-mining malware which proves that crypto-miners are gradually becoming more popular.

Speaking more specifically, an in-browser miner from Crypto-loot.com/lib/miner.min.js will take up approximately 50% of computers’ CPU resources. This drastic increase should be noticed by users, but in some cases, sluggishly running operating systems are overlooked.

Even though crypto-mining is legal, most of the users consider it abusive. This is no surprise because vicious website-owners are the first in line for getting a JavaScript of a miner. Cryptojacking occurs secretively, without users knowledge and most users are bound to consider it as violation of their rights. Websites won’t require visitors’ permissions to be able to insert in-browser miners. Users have to prevent this happening on his/her own by applying one of the techniques of mining-prevention.

However, Crypto-Loot Trojan Miner might be distributed in other ways. For instance, CoinHive was distributed together with a rogue Chrome extension which was even available in Chrome Web Store. In addition to this, Showtime also automatically inserted CoinHive, until one attentive visitor noticed this unexpected visitor.

In the official website, Crypto-Loot sheds light on the cryptocurrency that it is supposed to mine. The service provides a browser-based web miner for the Monero Blockchain (Monero vs. Bitcoin). This code can be embedded into websites and replace online advertisements. However, this specific Crypto-Loot Trojan can mine any cryptocurrency that the user wishes. Mining-process can bring Monero, Dashcoin, Bitcoin or basically any other digital currency. Nevertheless, Monero is probably the most frequent selection for mining. While Bitcoin is considered as an anonymous payment system, Monero surpasses Bitcoin in this case.

The thin line between legal and illegal mining

If it is still unclear when mining is inappropriate and illegal (What is illegal mining?), read this paragraph. It is acceptable that a website would offer an option to opt out of receiving a miner. If a domain does not offer this feature and simply injects codes without authorization, then the mining is considered as improper. Therefore, it is crucial to apply cryptocurrency mining blocking methods. Of course, not all digital coins that are mined will belong to the websites-owners. For instance, creators of CoinHive snatch 30% of the generated profits. Surprisingly, Crypto-Loot creators are feeling more generous and only take 12%.

How can you avoid crypto-miners?

Since various types of programs and browser extensions can include JavaScrips of miners, it is important to properly check tools before downloading them. Furthermore, there are other options that you can select to defeat mining-trojans. Respectable security applications are now being designed to block activities of crypto-miners. Therefore, having a quality tool will work in your favor. In addition to this, people can use ad-blockers to prevent certain scripts from being ran in their browsers. For proper protection from all threats, consider using Spyhunter.

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