This blog post has been created to explain what is Harvest Miner cryptocurrency miner and show how to remove it from your computer plus protect your PC against future infections as well.
The Harvest Miner is a new cryptocurrency miner that is currently in development. Another example of such malware is the infamous Bitcoin miner virus. Its creators have created it as an open-source alternative to the popular CoinHive script. We suspect that it will gain a very large popularity once it is ready.
Threat Summary
| Name | Harvest Miner |
| Type | CryptoCurrency Miner Malware |
| Short Description | Aims to mine for different cryptocurrencies on the victim’s computer after which may begin to |
| Symptoms | The Harvest Miner miner may begin to slow down your computer by using over 90% of both your CPU and GPU. This may result in your cooling fans to work at higher speeds. |
| Distribution Method | Via bundled installers, fake setups or via other PUP that has already been installed on your PC. |
| Detection Tool |
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User Experience | Join Our Forum to Discuss Harvest Miner. |
Harvest Miner Virus – Distribution Methods
The Harvest Miner is usually deployed to the victim computers via a web-based infection. This is done by placing a malware script into hacker-controlled sites. They are usually made using templates that pose as legitimate web services: download portals, web search engines and etc.
Such threats can also be pushed through spam email messages that contain interactive and rich text elements. A popular way of integrating coinminer scripts is to use various social engineering tactics in order to fool the victims into interacting with the malware component.
Another example would be the integration of the dangerous code in web scripts such as ads, banners, pop-ups and redirects. They are widely used on different sites and easily forwarded to the victims. In the last few months there has been a noticeable surge in the development of spam messages in the social networks. The criminals use hacked or stolen user credentials and post messages and posts that attempt to redirect the victims.
Harvest Miner Malware – Malicious Activity
The Harvest Miner follows the usual infection strategy used by other similar threats. Upon invocation it is loaded into memory and begins to take advantage of the available hardware resources to perform complex and intensive operations that result in the generation of cryptocurrency value that is sent to the criminal operators. At the moment it supports the Monero currency which is one of the well-known alternatives to Bitcoin. It has several distinct advantages over it, among which is its privacy-centric workflow. Instead of the public nature of Bitcoin’s blockchain the one used in Monero keeps the amount of transactions private. It is also difficult to pinpoint the transaction senders and receivers unless specific values are known. Monero is also known for having significantly lower transaction fees.
The Harvest Miner can be loaded into the browsers and can run efficienty once loaded into memory. At the moment the testing samples still do not match the performance ratings of more mature miners, however development is ongoing. The fact that the dangerous applications can run from a simple script makes it very dangerous. The compact size means that it can be executed from a variety of different types of pages.
The developers note that it is written using WebAssembly which means that browser-based attacks can directly invoke low-level byte code. The current implementation depends on several components:
- Miner — Vanilla Javascript code.
- JobThread — WebWorker Dispatcher.
- WebWorker — Bundled WebAssembly/Assembly.js.
- CryptoNote — Hashing Algorithm.
The code analysis shows that the Miner is used by the attackers to dispatch the malware commands to the JobThreads module. Its functions are to handled the requests and present the mining statistics: hash rate, total average, throttle and etc. The JobThread module is the part of the malware that is actually assigned with the task of controlling the miner threads. It interfaces with the CryptoNote algorithm specifications. All resulting operations are reported to the Miner instance which reports to the hacker operators via a network connection.
At the moment a final version is still not available however we suspect that once this is done the Harvest Miner will be adopted by the masses. The reason for this being is the fact that it is advertised as the open-source alternative to CoinHive which is one of the most popuar ways to deploy cryptocurrency miners. The main distinction and advantage of the Harvest Miner is the fact that it does not require a developers fee. All proceedings would go to the site operators.
Remove Harvest Miner Virus and Protect Your PC
Q: How Do I Remove Harvest Miner and How Do I Protect Myself In the Future?
A: In order to remove the Harvest Miner miner, you should first stop the malicious processes of the malware by entering Windows Task Manager and stopping the malicious task by right-clicking on the Harvest Miner process and clicking on End Process or End Process tree. This results in the virus stopping to mine. After doing so, you may want to remove the malware preferably by following the automatic or manual removal instructions below, if you have removed malware manually and have the experience. Be advised that security experts strongly recommend to remove the Harvest Miner miner malware automatically by downloading an advanced anti-malware software, that aims to scan for and erase all malware from your system plus protect it against future infections as well.
Martin Beltov
Martin graduated with a degree in Publishing from Sofia University. As a cyber security enthusiast he enjoys writing about the latest threats and mechanisms of intrusion.
Follow Me:
- Guide 1: How to Remove Harvest Miner from Windows.
- Guide 2: Get rid of Harvest Miner from Mac OS X.
- Guide 3: Remove Harvest Miner from Google Chrome.
- Guide 4: Erase Harvest Miner from Mozilla Firefox.
- Guide 5: Uninstall Harvest Miner from Microsoft Edge.
- Guide 6: Remove Harvest Miner from Safari.
- Guide 7: Eliminate Harvest Miner from Internet Explorer.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
How to Remove Harvest Miner from Windows.
Step 1: Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove Harvest Miner
Step 2: Uninstall Harvest Miner and related software from Windows
Here is a method in few easy steps that should be able to uninstall most programs. No matter if you are using Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista or XP, those steps will get the job done. Dragging the program or its folder to the recycle bin can be a very bad decision. If you do that, bits and pieces of the program are left behind, and that can lead to unstable work of your PC, errors with the file type associations and other unpleasant activities. The proper way to get a program off your computer is to Uninstall it. To do that:
Follow the instructions above and you will successfully uninstall most programs.
Step 3: Clean any registries, created by Harvest Miner on your computer.
The usually targeted registries of Windows machines are the following:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
You can access them by opening the Windows registry editor and deleting any values, created by Harvest Miner there. This can happen by following the steps underneath:
Tip: To find a virus-created value, you can right-click on it and click "Modify" to see which file it is set to run. If this is the virus file location, remove the value.
Before starting "Step 4", please boot back into Normal mode, in case you are currently in Safe Mode.
This will enable you to install and use SpyHunter 5 successfully.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Get rid of Harvest Miner from Mac OS X.
Step 1: Uninstall Harvest Miner and remove related files and objects
1. Hit the ⇧+⌘+U keys to open Utilities. Another way is to click on “Go” and then click “Utilities”, like the image below shows:
- Go to Finder.
- In the search bar type the name of the app that you want to remove.
- Above the search bar change the two drop down menus to “System Files” and “Are Included” so that you can see all of the files associated with the application you want to remove. Bear in mind that some of the files may not be related to the app so be very careful which files you delete.
- If all of the files are related, hold the ⌘+A buttons to select them and then drive them to “Trash”.
In case you cannot remove Harvest Miner via Step 1 above:
In case you cannot find the virus files and objects in your Applications or other places we have shown above, you can manually look for them in the Libraries of your Mac. But before doing this, please read the disclaimer below:
You can repeat the same procedure with the following other Library directories:
→ ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Tip: ~ is there on purpose, because it leads to more LaunchAgents.
Step 2: Scan for and remove Harvest Miner files from your Mac
When you are facing problems on your Mac as a result of unwanted scripts and programs such as Harvest Miner, the recommended way of eliminating the threat is by using an anti-malware program. SpyHunter for Mac offers advanced security features along with other modules that will improve your Mac’s security and protect it in the future.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove Harvest Miner from Google Chrome.
Step 1: Start Google Chrome and open the drop menu
Step 2: Move the cursor over "Tools" and then from the extended menu choose "Extensions"
Step 3: From the opened "Extensions" menu locate the unwanted extension and click on its "Remove" button.
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Google Chrome by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Erase Harvest Miner from Mozilla Firefox.
Step 1: Start Mozilla Firefox. Open the menu window
Step 2: Select the "Add-ons" icon from the menu.
Step 3: Select the unwanted extension and click "Remove"
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Uninstall Harvest Miner from Microsoft Edge.
Step 1: Start Edge browser.
Step 2: Open the drop menu by clicking on the icon at the top right corner.
Step 3: From the drop menu select "Extensions".
Step 4: Choose the suspected malicious extension you want to remove and then click on the gear icon.
Step 5: Remove the malicious extension by scrolling down and then clicking on Uninstall.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove Harvest Miner from Safari.
Step 1: Start the Safari app.
Step 2: After hovering your mouse cursor to the top of the screen, click on the Safari text to open its drop down menu.
Step 3: From the menu, click on "Preferences".
Step 4: After that, select the 'Extensions' Tab.
Step 5: Click once on the extension you want to remove.
Step 6: Click 'Uninstall'.
A pop-up window will appear asking for confirmation to uninstall the extension. Select 'Uninstall' again, and the Harvest Miner will be removed.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Eliminate Harvest Miner from Internet Explorer.
Step 1: Start Internet Explorer.
Step 2: Click on the gear icon labeled 'Tools' to open the drop menu and select 'Manage Add-ons'
Step 3: In the 'Manage Add-ons' window.
Step 4: Select the extension you want to remove and then click 'Disable'. A pop-up window will appear to inform you that you are about to disable the selected extension, and some more add-ons might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and click 'Disable'.
Step 5: After the unwanted extension has been removed, restart Internet Explorer by closing it from the red 'X' button located at the top right corner and start it again.
