VMProtect Miner Trojan

Posted: October 11, 2017

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	8,392
Threat Level:	9/10
Infected PCs:	225

First Seen:	October 11, 2017
Last Seen:	March 7, 2025
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The VMProtect Miner Trojan is a modified version of a legitime application called XMRig CPU Miner. This appears to be one of the most reliable tools used to mine Monero, but evil-minded users are modifying the application's executable file so that it will run on other computers without the knowledge of the affected user. Such is the case with the VMProtect Miner Trojan – an application meant to be run automatically, therefore allowing it to utilize the CPU of the infected computer silently to mine the Monero cryptocurrency and transfer it to the wallet of the Trojan's author.

Since the goal of the con artists behind VMProtect Miner Trojan is to reach as many users as possible, they might utilize various techniques to spread the payload of their annoying program. Spam e-mails, pirated software, and fake downloads are just some of the basic methods that might be used to spread the VMProtect Miner Trojan. When this application is launched on an unprotected computer, it will create multiple files that allow it to execute its primary task. In addition to this, the VMProtect Miner Trojan also may create a Windows Service whose purpose is to ensure that the VMProtect Miner Trojan will start alongside Windows.

While the VMProtect Miner Trojan runs, the user might experience severe performance issues – being unable to launch heavy applications, general slowness of the computer, unstable software, and slow loading times for various content. The application is known to run under the names 'VMProtectss.exe' and 'VMProtectks.exe,' and it may often utilize over 80% of the available CPU resources. Although this Trojan is considered to be less harmful than most of the threats that fall into the same category, it is important to mention that this software puts the victim's CPU under constant stress, therefore increasing the temperature with which the CPU operates at and shortening its lifespan potentially.

Since the VMProtect Miner Trojan does not exhibit any obviously threatening behavior, it may run on unprotected systems for quite a long time before the victim notices that there is something weird going on. The best way to make sure that a crypto-currency miner will not end up using your system's resources automatically is to use a credible anti-virus software suite that will halt any attempts of this sort. If you suspect that the VMProtect Miner Trojan or another tool of the same sort is present on your computer currently, then we advise you to use a reputable and up-to-date anti-malware scanning tool to resolve the issue in a matter of minutes.

VMProtect Miner Trojan

Threat Metric

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