BITCOIN MINER on this site?!?

[floyd]

So what should the average comparative Luddite member here do to protect himself, if anything?


What can the site do to remedy the problem?


Could this be the cause of a slow CPU which requires a restart to get back to normal?

[Daniel A.]

My Kaspersky keeps blocking it, its been doing this for the last couple of day's.

[Janet H]

Originally Posted by Daniel A.

My Kaspersky keeps blocking it, its been doing this for the last couple of day's.

We are actively looking at this - thanks for your patience.

[Daniel A.]

Thanks the message I get say's


Dangerous URL blocked.
URL listed in database of malicious ULR's

[John in Santa Cruz]

btw, that block of obfuscated code in my post #3 on this thread, I have no way of knowing if thats whats actually invoking the WebSocket calls to the .ru site or not, as the code is totally obfuscated.... makes it really hard to trace whats going on.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Tom 72

Interesting, John
My first reaction was to chuckle, thinking there are no coins to be mined here. But that isn't the point.

The point is to potentially use members processors remotely as part of a massive computing effort, perhaps without members knowing.

Is it possible? Some may recall SETI, Seti.org is a site that used to harness idle processing power from volunteers to Search Extra Terrestrial life - UFOs. SETI is still around, their focus seems to have shifted.

Some trojan viruses create massive computing power without users consent or knowledge. It is possible. It should be evaluated.

thats exactly what this trojan is doing... its using everyone's webbrowser to 'mine' some sort of cryptocurrency (bitcoin is only one of dozens of similar things) ...

[Friz]

Has anybody tried this malicious site running Linux? If the website tries to run executable code, either nothing happens or the browser usually freezes.

[Janet H]

We've located the issue and disabled the Registry display in the side bar for now. There appeared to be a malicious link that was exploiting CPUs (as speculated earlier on this thread). The link and associated flotsam has been removed.


There should be no issue at this point for local systems as the only purpose of the link to mine for bit coin by leveraging CPUs. After examining the link and associated information we are confident that nothing was downloaded to local systems and there was no access to member information or the sites database.

You can read more about crypto mining here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

[sokhapkin]

Originally Posted by Friz

Has anybody tried this malicious site running Linux? If the website tries to run executable code, either nothing happens or the browser usually freezes.

It doesn't matter which OS do you run. I run Linux. The malicious code is javascript which is being executed by your web browser.It is OS-independent.

[John in Santa Cruz]

per the other thread on this, the 'house' has fixed the problem had something to do with the 'registry' sidebar, so they turned that off. so mitigations like blocking that qxxxxxxx.ru URL, probably not needed.

[Patdeesky]

My entire empire of 1 imaginary bitcoin for a trailer please.... /sarc if no one catches it/

[John in Santa Cruz]

my older kid, a postgrad research assistant, has made a fair bit of money playing the coin market. he wasn't mining, he was doing arbitrage stuff, buying and selling positions. he pulled 4-5X his initial investment in cash when he got out.

[Glenn Baglo]

With the site fix, I can now use my MacBook Air laptop without frying my thighs.
Recently, it had gotten so hot that I would shut it down. Makes me wonder about damage to computers that are victims.


As for Bitcoin, I'd like to know how you can mine something that doesn't exist. Actually, no I don't want to know. Recent stories about how these "currencies" were manipulated to generate profits for some.

[Civilguy]

I reported this to the mods yesterday and said that I didn't have the same symptoms. Then I came to realize that it was running about 40% of my processor. Maybe my computer is one of the slower kids, like me?

I installed uBlock Origin on my desktop a few months ago. I was conflicted about this as ads are what pays for so the operation of many web sites. I have to say that this Chrome extension has done a really great job of corralling some of the most obnoxious ads.

Somewhat off-topic, I am one of the people that sends a few dollars to pay for Irfanview, MP3Tag, and Fiberglass-RV-for-sale before I even listed a trailer on their site; things like that. The Internet is not really free folks; that's why our information is now one of the primary products being marketed. I will posit that almost nothing costs so much as something billed as being "free".

End of lecture, TYVM.

[Carl V]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

With the site fix, I can now use my MacBook Air laptop without frying my thighs.
Recently, it had gotten so hot that I would shut it down. Makes me wonder about damage to computers that are victims.

Macbook Pro here. Never had any issue like that with this site (or any other).
I figured this was a Windows thing...

Strange...!

[Jon Vermilye]

Originally Posted by Carl V

Macbook Pro here. Never had any issue like that with this site (or any other).
I figured this was a Windows thing...

Strange...!

Nope. I've often had the cooling fans come on in my MacBookPro when here at Fiberglass RV for no apparent reason. Didn't happen today...

[Jon in AZ]

Same here with my MacBook Pro. It was a recent problem, and I had been using my mobile device via the app most of the time as a result.

It is now fixed, as reported by site admins elsewhere. All is back to normal on my Mac, too.

Quick response from the site team!!!

[Doctor Harold]

Bitcoin is not much different than the money in your wallet. Paper dollars only have value because we all agree that they do, and we trust the US government to back that up. Ever hear the expression about some failed country's money that it's not worth the paper it's printed on?

Most dollars that exist in the American economy do not exist as paper. The money in your checking account, savings account, the money you owe on your credit card, and the balance owed on your mortgage, as well as the money you consider equity used to exist as notations on a ledger sheet, and now only in a computer file.

Whether it's seashells, dollars, bitcoin, gold bars, or wampum, the value only exists because we believe -- and agree -- that it exists.

Without agreement on the value of a particular form of money, that money ceases to exist. In other words: all money is basically imaginary.

[Mike Magee]

Originally Posted by Doctor Harold

Bitcoin is not much different than the money in your wallet. Paper dollars only have value because we all agree that they do, and we trust the US government to back that up. Ever hear the expression about some failed country's money that it's not worth the paper it's printed on?

Most dollars that exist in the American economy do not exist as paper. The money in your checking account, savings account, the money you owe on your credit card, and the balance owed on your mortgage, as well as the money you consider equity used to exist as notations on a ledger sheet, and now only in a computer file.

Whether it's seashells, dollars, bitcoin, gold bars, or wampum, the value only exists because we believe -- and agree -- that it exists.

Without agreement on the value of a particular form of money, that money ceases to exist. In other words: all money is basically imaginary.

Shhhh. Don't stampede the herd.

[Doctor Harold]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

Shhhh. Don't stampede the herd.