A world-wide cyber-security organization not of very late uncovered a malicious malware which gorges on saved user credentials like passwords and usernames.
This activity has been majorly victimizing passwords saved onto Google Chrome, credit card credentials saved onto Chrome and iPhone text messages backed up to Mac.
Reportedly, what the malware does is that it gets hold of the browser cookies in relation with mainstream crypto-currency exchanges which also include wallet providing websites the user has gone through.
The surmised motive behind the past acts of the miner seems to be the excruciating need to bypass the multi-factor authentication for the sites in question.
Having dodged the main security procedure, the cyber-con behind the attack would be absolutely free to access the victim’s exchange account or the wallet so being used and to exploit the funds in them.
Web cookies are those pieces of information which get automatically stored onto the web server, the moment a user signs in.
Hence, exploitation of those cookies directly means exploiting the very user indirectly.
Cookie theft is the easiest way to dodge login anomaly detection, as if the username and passwords are used by an amateur, the alarms might set off and another authentication request may get sent.
Whereas if the username passwords are used along with the cookie the entire session would absolutely be considered legit and no alert would be issued after all.
Most of the fancy wallet and crypto-currency exchange websites have multi-factor authentication.
All that the CookieMiner does is that it tries to create combinations and try them in order to slide past the authentication process.
A cyber-con could treat such a vulnerable opportunity like a gold mine and could win a lot out of it.
In addition to Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari is also a web browser being openly targeted. As it turns out, the choice for the web browser target depends upon its recognition.
The malware seems to have additional malignancy to it as it also finds a way to download a “CoinMiner” onto the affected system/ device.