#miningexploitation

[cyber-sec]

Researchers Shut Down Cryptomining Botnets by Exploiting Pool Protocols

Cybersecurity experts developed two clever methods that cripple cryptomining botnets by submitting invalid shares or flooding attacker wallets, forcing mining pools to ban critical components and halt operations.

Researchers from Akamai discovered that exploiting weaknesses in the Stratum mining protocol allows defenders to ban mining proxies or attacker wallets. One technique, called “bad shares”, submits invalid mining results via the proxy to get it banned, dropping victim CPU usage from 100% to zero. The other floods attacker wallets with logins to trigger temporary bans, disrupting mining campaigns and forcing attackers to overhaul or abandon their setups. These methods effectively cut the profits of cryptominer botnets, mainly targeting Monero but extendable to other coins.

Sources: The Hacker News | Akamai