Microsoft has removed 8 hidden mining apps on Windows.

[Paha87]

Eight applications in the official Microsoft store, discovered by Symantec, contained a version of Coinhive-popular among cybercriminals script for mining cryptocurrency Monero.

In the discovery report, Symantec, which specializes in cybersecurity, reported malicious applications, and Microsoft subsequently disabled them. All the apps worked in Windows 10, including Windows 10's Mode, which restricts the download of the apps in the Microsoft Store.

According to reports from Symantec, all the apps just released three developer DigiDream, 1clean and Findoo, but they covered the field of computer training and the optimization of battery life, web searches, viewing web pages, watching and download video.

Once downloaded and opened, the apps work by extracting the monero mining JavaScript library, calling Google Tag Manager on their domain servers. Then, the mining script is activated, which uses most of the CPU power of the victim computer to mine the cryptocurrency. Symantec wrote in the post:

In total, we found eight applications from these developers with the same malicious behavior. After further investigation, we believe that all of these apps were probably developed by the same person or group of people.

The report says that JavaScript was also removed from Google Tag Manager after Google was informed. "Although these apps appear to provide privacy policies, there is no mention of cryptocurrency mining in their app store descriptions," Symantec said.

The apps were placed in the official store of the software giant from April to December last year, although most of them were published by the end of last year. "Despite being in the Microsoft store for a relatively short period, a significant number of users may have already downloaded them to their PCs," the firm said.

According to a study published last month, Monero (XMR) is the most popular cryptocurrency among attackers introducing malware. So much so that, according to the author of the study, hackers extracted at least 4.32% of the total number of Monero tokens in circulation.

Link (Russian) - https://altstake.io/news/microsoft-udalil8-skrytyhmayningovyh-prilogheniy-na-windows

[MrSpasybo]

Super! It makes mining market clearer from thief mining softwares. We need more profesional mining industry to keep cryptocurrency stronger.

[sirty143]

Well, no matter what we do these thieves still think of ways they can get into the system to get what they want because they're really working hard to be successful. So do not be surprised if one-day news comes out they have succeeded.