New Frontiers In Cryptojacking

Cryptojacking attacks are evolving over time to better evade detection by both end users and protection technologies. It’s therefore important for security teams to understand how these attacks work so they can best protect their system resources. In a recent talk at AVAR 2018, Qualys Malware Research Labs presented an analysis of several evasion techniques used by attackers to deliver the Cryptojacking code to web browser and how existing protection technologies stack up against them.
About Cryptojacking
Cryptojacking attacks leverage the victim system’s resources via malicious JavaScript to mine certain cryptocurrencies. Attackers carry out these attacks by infecting popular sites with JavaScript that enables cryptojacking. Any visitor to such sites will download the JavaScript and unknowingly contribute its system resources to mine a cryptocurrency that is added to the attacker’s wallet.
Early Cryptojacking Attacks
CoinHive was the first browser-based CryptoMining service provider. They made it possible to enable browser-based mining on a website by embedding just a few lines of code. Adversaries seized this opportunity and Cryptojacking attacks became prevalent.
