• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

 | 

Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

 | 

Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

 | 

Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

 | 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

 | 

Italian police arrested a Chinese national suspected of cyberespionage on a U.S. warrant

 | 

U.S. CISA adds MRLG, PHPMailer, Rails Ruby on Rails, and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist

 | 

New Batavia spyware targets Russian industrial enterprises

 | 

Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Hunters International ransomware gang shuts down and offers free decryption keys to all victims

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 52

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 531 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

North Korea-linked threat actors spread macOS NimDoor malware via fake Zoom updates

 | 

Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits

 | 

Google fined $314M for misusing idle Android users' data

 | 

A flaw in Catwatchful spyware exposed logins of +62,000 users

 | 

China-linked group Houken hit French organizations using zero-days

 | 

Cybercriminals Target Brazil: 248,725 Exposed in CIEE One Data Breach

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Cyber Crime
  • Hacking
  • Malware
  • Prometei, a new modular crypto-mining botnet exploits Windows SMB

Prometei, a new modular crypto-mining botnet exploits Windows SMB

Pierluigi Paganini July 23, 2020

Prometei is a crypto-mining botnet that recently appeared in the threat landscape, it exploits the Microsoft Windows SMB protocol for lateral movements.

Security experts from Cisco Talos discovered a new crypto-mining botnet, tracked as Prometei, that exploits the Microsoft Windows SMB protocol for lateral movements.move laterally across systems while covertly mining for cryptocurrency. 

The Prometei botnet appears to be active at least since March 2020, it has a modular structure and employes multiple techniques to infect systems and evade the detection.

“Cisco Talos recently discovered a complex campaign employing a multi-modular botnet with multiple ways to spread and a payload focused on providing financial benefits for the attacker by mining the Monero online currency. The actor employs various methods to spread across the network, like SMB with stolen credentials, psexec, WMI and SMB exploits.” reads the analysis published by Cisco Talos. “The adversary also uses several crafted tools that helps the botnet increase the amount of systems participating in its Monero-mining pool.”

The attack chain starts with the main botnet file attempting to compromise a machine’s Windows Server Message Block (SMB) protocol exploiting SMB vulnerabilities such as Eternal Blue. 

The Prometei botnet has more than 15 executable modules that are downloaded by the main module from the C2 server over HTTP.

The botnet used a modified version of Mimikatz to steal credentials and any other passwords of the compromised network, then send them back to the C2 for reuse. The C2 share the passwords with other modules that attempt to verify their validity on other systems using SMB and RDP protocols. 

The botnet has two main function branches, a C++ branch tasked of cryptocurrency mining operations and a .NET branch that abuse of SMB to steal credentials.

Experts pointed out that the C++ branch can operate independently from the second one, it implements both functionalities for credential stealing and mining. The branch in C++ implements a special type of obfuscation to evade the detection and the analysis in dynamic automated analysis systems.

The main branch also has auxiliary modules that allow the Prometei botnet to communicate through TOR or I2P networks, to collect information about processes running on the system, check of open ports on target systems and to crawl the file systems in search for file names given as the argument to the module. This latest function is typically used to search for Bitcoin cryptocurrency wallets.

The bot supports various commands, including executing programs and commands, launching command shells, opening, downloading, and stealing files, setting RC4 encryption keys for communication, and managing cryptocurrency mining operations. 

According to Talos researchers, the current number of infected hosts is in the low thousands, its operators only generated $1,250 per month on average.

Most of the Prometei bots are in the US, Brazil, Turkey, China, Mexico and Chile. 

“Although earnings of $1,250 per month doesn’t sound like a significant amount compared to some other cybercriminal operations, for a single developer in Eastern Europe, this provides more than the average monthly salary for many countries,” Talos concludes. “Perhaps that is why, if we look at the embedded paths to program database files in many botnet components, we see a reference to the folder c:\Work.”

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Prometei botnet)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

botnet cryptocurrency malware Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security malware Monero Pierluigi Paganini Prometei botnet Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 10, 2025
DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 09, 2025
Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

    APT / July 10, 2025

    Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

    Data Breach / July 09, 2025

    Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

    Malware / July 09, 2025

    Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

    Malware / July 09, 2025

    Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

    Security / July 08, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT