{
  "family": "mmxmr",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "trojan",
  "description": "<h3>Executive Summary</h3>\nMMXMR is a specialized malicious cryptocurrency miner (cryptojacking malware) explicitly designed to illicitly mine Monero (XMR). By covertly hijacking the CPU and occasionally GPU resources of infected endpoints, MMXMR generates cryptocurrency for its operators, leading to severe performance degradation, increased power consumption, and hardware wear on the victim's machines.\n\n<h3>Technical Implementation and Execution</h3>\nMMXMR is typically distributed via exploit kits targeting unpatched vulnerabilities, disguised as legitimate software updates, or dropped as a secondary payload by initial access trojans.\n\nUpon execution, MMXMR focuses on stealth and maximum resource utilization:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Process Injection:</strong> It frequently injects its mining payload into legitimate Windows processes (such as `svchost.exe`, `explorer.exe`, or `notepad.exe`) to mask its CPU consumption in the Task Manager.</li>\n<li><strong>Resource Management:</strong> Advanced MMXMR variants monitor user activity. If the user opens the Task Manager or starts a resource-intensive application, the miner temporarily pauses or throttles its CPU usage to avoid detection.</li>\n<li><strong>Stratum Protocol:</strong> The malware communicates with remote mining pools utilizing the Stratum mining protocol, receiving computational tasks and submitting calculated hashes to generate Monero for the attacker's wallet.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h3>Operational Impact</h3>\nWhile MMXMR does not steal data or encrypt files, it causes significant operational disruption. Infected machines suffer from extreme latency, overheating, and frequent crashes. In enterprise environments, widespread cryptojacking infections dramatically increase electricity costs and accelerate hardware degradation.\n\n<h3>Detection and Remediation</h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Performance Monitoring:</strong> Utilize endpoint management tools to monitor for sustained, unexplained high CPU usage (often pinned at 90-100%) across multiple endpoints, a hallmark of cryptojacking.</li>\n<li><strong>Network Traffic Analysis:</strong> Inspect outbound network traffic for connections utilizing the Stratum protocol or connections to known cryptocurrency mining pools, often occurring over non-standard ports or port 3333.</li>\n<li><strong>Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR):</strong> Deploy EDR solutions configured to detect process hollowing and the execution of known mining binaries (often derivatives of XMRig) operating under the guise of system processes.</li>\n</ul>",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [
    "Miner.MMXMR",
    "CoinMiner.Monero",
    "Riskware.BitCoinMiner"
  ],
  "enrichment_level": "insufficient_information",
  "faq": [],
  "faq_count": 0,
  "mitre_attack": [
    "T1496",
    "T1055",
    "T1059"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-07-01T16:23:56Z",
  "type": "Cryptominer",
  "target_industries": [
    "Global / Opportunistic"
  ],
  "motivation": "Opportunistic",
  "threat_actors": [
    "Unknown / Cybercriminal"
  ],
  "target_geographies": [
    "Global"
  ]
}