This article has been created to explain what is the Coinhive Miner virus and to show how you can remove the Coinhive Miner Trojan from your Mac.
A familiar Trojan using one of the most notorious miner pools, called Coinhive has been detected to infect Mac systems. The Trojan is unique in the fact that It uses JavaScript to conduct mining operations for the anonymous cryptocurrency Monero on victim machines. The result of that is that the resources on the victimized Mac become occupied with mining activity which slows it down and overheats its components. This is why if you believe that your Mac has been affected by the Coinhive miner, we recommend that you read this article thoroughly in order to learn how you can try and remove the Coinhive miner Trojan from your Mac effectively.
Threat Summary
| Name | Coinhive Miner |
| Type | Coin Miner Trojan for Mac OS |
| Short Description | The end goal of this malware is to mine for the Cryptocurrency Monero, using your Mac’s CPU and GPU resources. |
| Symptoms | Having this malware on your Mac, results in elevated CPU and GPU usage by it’s malicious processes. If it remains on your computer for longer periods of time, the virus may even break your computer’s components. |
| Distribution Method | Spam Emails, Email Attachments, Executable files |
| Detection Tool |
See If Your System Has Been Affected by malware
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Combo Cleaner
|
User Experience | Join Our Forum to Discuss Coinhive Miner. |
Coinhive Miner – How Does It Infect
To infect computers, the Coinhive Trojan uses methods no different than what any other crypto miner would employ. The malware may infect your Mac as a result of you having to download a suspicious installer, license activation software, fake portable program, malicious Microsoft Office or other documents and simply starting them. These files may come uploaded on Torrent sites or by being set as the download you are looking for on suspicious and compromised WordPress websites.
Another very widespread method by which the Coinhive Miner may spread onto your Mac is via e-mail. Usually, viruses, like the Coinhive miner Trojan may be coming as an e-mail attachment tht poses as a legitimate document of great improtance and the end goal of such malspam e-mails is to convince you, the vicitm, to open the attachment. Usually the files that are most widely used to mask the malicious origin of this virus are:
- Receipt of a purchase.
- Invoice.
- Document from your company.
- Document from a big company.
- Document from a bank.
- Report of a problem with your account on a website you may be registered in.
These messages are masked in a very clever way. Below you can see an example of such malicious e-mail:
We could not deliver your parcel, #00000739097
FedEx 2Day A.M.
Sent: Tuesday, August 18. 2015 at 3:14 AM
To: Contact
Attached file: Delivery_Notification_00000739097.dmg (2.5 KB)
Dear Customer,
we could not deliver your parcel.
You can review complete details of your order in the find attached.
warm regards,
Marshall Hampton,
Sr. Operation Agent.
Coinhive Miner Trojan – What Does It Do
When the Coinhive Miner trojan infects your mac, the virus may immediately drop it’s payload on it. The payload may consist of the main infection file of the virus and other sub-infection files. Once dropped the miner may request your permissions to activate it while being masked as a legitimate program or a document.
Once an infection is triggered, the Coinhive Miner Trojan may run a “com” process in your Mac’s activity monitor and this process may be hidden or may start to appear. Once this is done, the miner may overtake a significant percentage of your CPU and GPU (Video Card and Central Processor) in order to perform the calculation of hashes that are needed to miner cryptocurrencies. You may immediately notice a decrease of your Mac’s performance as a result of the Coinhive Miner being active and your Mac may even freeze.
The malicious executable file, that belongs to the Coinhive Miner Trojan may establish a connection to the Coinhive network and as a result of that may begin the minig operation on your Mac by listing its IP address in the mining pool. Once a reward for the mining is accredited, it immediately goes to the wallets of the cyber-crimilas and the more Macs and computers they infect, the more Monero coins they are able to mine, while taking illegal advantage of your machine, without your permission or approval.
And this is not the only risk, associated with the Coinhive Miner Trojan, because it may also use spyware elements to obtain information from your Mac, such as:
- Your financial credentials.
- Your network and system details.
- Your passwords.
And furthermore, since the Coinhive miner virus is also a Trojan, it may perform other activities as well, like;
- Install other cryptocurrency miners.
- Update itself to remain hidden for longer periods of time on your Mac.
- Collect the keys you type on your Mac.
- Collect your IP address, network, antivirus and other information.
Remove Coinhive Miner Malware from Your Mac
Before starting to remove this miner virus from your Mac, we recommend that you backup all your important files, because with malware, as dangerous as this one, you never know what will happen.
To remove the Coinhive miner virus from your Mac, we recommend that you follow the manual or automatic removal instructions underneath this article. They have been created to help explain how you can remove this miner virus from your Mac based on your knowledge and malware removal experience. If manual removal does not seem to help, we would advise you what most experts will and that is to download and run a scan on your Mac, using an advanced anti-malware software. Such tools are created to thoroughly scan your Mac for any malware and remove all of its related files and objects. These types of anti-malware apps are also created to keep your Mac healthy and protected in the future as well.
Ventsislav Krastev
Ventsislav is a cybersecurity expert at SensorsTechForum since 2015. He has been researching, covering, helping victims with the latest malware infections plus testing and reviewing software and the newest tech developments. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for learning new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management, Network Administration and Computer Administration of System Applications, he found his true calling within the cybersecrurity industry and is a strong believer in the education of every user towards online safety and security.
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Preparation Phase:
Before starting to follow the steps below, be advised that you should first do the following preparations:
- Backup your files in case the worst happens.
- Make sure to have a device with these instructions on standy.
- Arm yourself with patience.
Step 1: Uninstall Coinhive 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 Coinhive 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: Remove Coinhive Miner – related extensions from Safari / Chrome / Firefox
Remove an extension from Safari and reset it.
Remove a toolbar from Google Chrome
Remove a toolbar from Mozilla Firefox
Step 3: Scan for and remove Coinhive Miner files from your Mac
When you are facing problems on your Mac as a result of unwanted scripts and programs such as Coinhive 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.
Coinhive Miner FAQ
What is Coinhive Miner on your Mac?
The Coinhive Miner threat is a potentially unwanted app or likely a Mac virus. It may slow your Mac down siginficantly and display advertisements. The main idea is for your information to likely get stolen or more ads to appear on your Mac.
The creators of such unwanted apps work with pay-per-click schemes to get your Mac to visit risky or different types of websites that may generate them funds. This is why they do not even care what types of websites show up on the ads. This makes their unwanted software indirectly risky for your MacOS.
Can my Mac get a virus?
Yes. As much as any other device, Apple computers do get viruses. Apple devices may not be a frequent target by malware authors, but rest assured that the following Apple devices can become infected with a virus:
- iMac
- Mac Mini
- Macbook Air
- Macbook Pro
- iPhone
- iPad
What are the symptoms of Coinhive Miner on your Mac?
There are several symptoms to look for when this particular threat and also most Mac threats in general are active:
Symptom #1: Your Mac may become slow and has poor performance in general.
Symtpom #2: You have toolbars, add-ons or extensions on your web browsers that you don't remember adding.
Symptom #3: You see all types of ads, like ad-supported search results, pop-ups and redirects to randomly appear.
Symptom #4: You see installed apps on your Mac running automatically and you do not remember installing them.
Symptom #5: You see suspicious processes running in your Mac's Activity Monitor.
If you see one or more of those symptoms, then security experts reccomend that you check your Mac for viruses.
What types of Mac threats are there?
According to most malware researchers and cyber-security experts, the threats that can currently infect your Mac can be the following types:
- Rogue Antivirus programs.
- Adware and hijackers.
- Trojan horses and other spyware.
- Ransomware and screen-lockers.
- Cryptocurrency miner malware.
What to do if I have a Mac virus, like Coinhive Miner?
Do not panic! You can easily get rid of most Mac threats by firstly isolating them and then removing them. One reccomended way to do that is by using a reputable malware removal software that can take care of the removal automatically for you. There are many Mac anti-malware apps out there that you can choose from. SpyHunter for Mac is one of the reccomended Mac anti-malware apps, that can scan for free and detect any viruses, tracking cookies and unwanted adware apps plus take care of them quickly. This saves time for manual removal that you would otherwise have to do.
How to secure my passwords and other data from Coinhive Miner?
With few simple actions. First and foremost, it is imperative that you follow these steps:
Step 1: Find a safe computer and connect it to another network, not the one that your Mac was infected in.
Step 2: Change all of your passwords, starting from your e-mail passwords.
Step 3: Enable two-factor authentication for protection of your important accounts.
Step 4: Call your bank to change your credit card details (secret code, etc.) if you have saved your credit card for online shopping or have done online activiites with your card.
Step 5: Make sure to call your ISP (Internet provider or carrier) and ask them to change your IP address.
Step 6: Change your Wi-Fi password.
Step 7: (Optional): Make sure to scan all of the devices connected to your network for viruses and repeat these steps for them if they are affected.
Step 8: Install anti-malware software with real-time protection on every device you have.
Step 9: Try not to download software from sites you know nothing about and stay away from low-reputation websites in general.
If you follow these reccomendations, your network and Apple devices will become significantly more safe against any threats or information invasive software and be virus free and protected in the future too.
More tips you can find on our website, where you can also ask any questions and comment about your Mac problems.
