New Monero-Mining Malware Targets Android Devices, Thousands Infected

Researchers from Chinese Cybersecurity company 360Netlab has discovered a new Android-based cryptocurrency mining malware that infects vulnerable Android devices to mine cryptocurrency, as reported in a blog post from the firm on Feb. 6. 

As 360Netlab reports, the ADB.Miner worm scans can affect any kind of Android device, including smartphones, tablets, and television sets. The malware infects the device to mine Monero (XMR) coins and sends all acquired funds to a single wallet. 

According to 360Netlab’s blog post, the cryptocurrency mining worm ADB.Miner has been actively infecting devices since Feb. 5, managing to infiltrate 7,000 Android devices, mainly in China and South Korea. The researchers emphasize that the ADB.Miner’s spreading speed is high, the number of scanned devices doubling every 12 hours. 

The malware is being spread using the publicly accessible Android Debug Bridge (ADB) on an opened port 5555, which is normally closed. At the current stage of the research, the the security specialists claim that they “have no idea about how and when this port was opened”.

Last week Cointelegraph reported about another case of malware mining Monero, the Smorinru botnet, which has managed to mine over 9,000 Monero coins since May 2017. Previously, on Jan. 26 Monero-mining malware attacked users’ PCs via online ads serving Coinhive code, which affected large number of users and websites worldwide.