Crackonosh is the name of a trojan stealthily distributed inside cracked software installers. Upon successful installation, its purpose is to inject the XMRIG miner and start mining Monero cryptocurrency for the threat actors. As of now, statistics show that this miner has helped cybercriminals mine the amount of Monero worth roughly two million dollars. A couple of words on how the trojan does its malicious job: After the installer of cracked software is launched, it places an installer and script onto the targeted system, which then changes the Windows Registry settings to turn off hibernation mode and activate Crackonosh in Safe Mode at the next system start-up. This way, the trojan deactivates Windows Update and Windows Defender and is even able to uninstall third-party antivirus programs (e.g., Avast, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, McAfee, and Norton) in order to reduce the chance of getting detected and blocked. To conceal its presence, it erases system log files, serviceinstaller.msi
files, and maintenance.vbs
files. As a result, some infected systems may display error messages indicating issues with the aforementioned files. In addition, Crackonosh may also halt Windows Update services and substitute the Windows Security icon with a fake green system tray icon. The main symptoms that should attract your attention and lead you to suspect something is wrong with your system are usually slower and laggy PC performance, increased CPU/GPU/RAM usage, overheating, unexpected crashes, and other related issues. Thus, if any of these symptoms are present, make sure to read our guide below and eliminate the potential crypto-mining trojan from your computer.