{
  "family": "smominru",
  "sample_count": 1,
  "category": "advanced_threat",
  "description": "Worm:Win32/Smominru is one of the most prolific and resilient botnets in operation, primarily dedicated to large-scale cryptojacking (mining Monero). What sets Smominru apart from simple miners is its aggressive, self-propagating worm capabilities. It actively scans the internet and internal networks, heavily leveraging the EternalBlue (MS17-010) exploit to breach unpatched Windows servers and workstations, spreading laterally without any user interaction (`T1210`).<br><br><b>Understanding Smominru (EternalBlue Botnet)</b><br>To an end-user, an infected server will experience extreme CPU utilization, leading to severe performance degradation or total unresponsiveness. For a security architect, a Smominru outbreak is a massive red flag indicating a systemic failure in patch management and internal network segmentation, as the worm will rapidly compromise every unpatched machine it can reach.<br><br><b>Execution and Lateral Movement Mechanics</b><br>Smominru uses a multi-stage architecture. After exploiting EternalBlue (`T1210`) or brute-forcing MS-SQL/RDP (`T1110`), it drops a PowerShell payload or uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) (`T1047`) to execute commands filelessly. It downloads the XMRig mining software and a secondary credential stealer (often Mimikatz) to harvest passwords for further lateral movement (`T1003.001`). Persistence is established via robust WMI event subscriptions (`T1546.003`), making it notoriously difficult to eradicate, as the WMI triggers will re-download the malware even if the binaries are deleted. The botnet uses a highly decentralized C2 infrastructure, often hiding behind proxies and DGA domains.<br><br><b>Indicators of Compromise & Impact</b><br>The impact is a massive drain on corporate computing resources and the exposure of internal credentials. Host-based IoCs include EDR alerts for anomalous WMI activity (e.g., `scrcons.exe` consuming high CPU), the execution of known mining binaries (`xmrig.exe`), and unexpected PowerShell scripts running as SYSTEM. Network IoCs include a massive volume of outbound SMB traffic (TCP 445) as the infected host scans for other vulnerable machines, and persistent Stratum protocol connections to mining pools.",
  "cta": "Published by the SystemHelpdesk team.",
  "aliases": [],
  "enrichment_level": "expert-seo",
  "faq": [],
  "faq_count": 0,
  "mitre_attack": [
    "T1546.003",
    "T1210",
    "T1496",
    "T1047"
  ],
  "cisa_advisory": null,
  "last_updated": "2026-06-09",
  "mitre_attack_detail": [
    {
      "id": "T1210",
      "name": "Exploitation of Remote Services (Using EternalBlue MS17-010 for lateral movement)",
      "tactic": "Lateral Movement"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1546.003",
      "name": "Event Triggered Execution: Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription (Primary persistence mechanism)",
      "tactic": "Persistence"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1496",
      "name": "Resource Hijacking (Mining Monero using stolen CPU resources)",
      "tactic": "Impact"
    },
    {
      "id": "T1047",
      "name": "Windows Management Instrumentation (Used for fileless execution and lateral movement)",
      "tactic": "Execution"
    }
  ],
  "containment_steps": [
    "Isolate infected machines from the network immediately to halt the aggressive SMB scanning and lateral movement.",
    "Prioritize patching all Windows systems against MS17-010 (EternalBlue) across the entire enterprise.",
    "Use specialized tools (like Sysinternals Autoruns) to identify and delete the malicious WMI event consumers and filters used for persistence.",
    "Segment the network to restrict SMB traffic (TCP 445) from flowing freely between workstations."
  ],
  "what_to_avoid": [
    "Do not assume deleting the mining executable fixes the problem; the WMI persistence will reinstall it within minutes.",
    "Avoid leaving MS-SQL servers exposed to the internet with weak or default SA passwords, as this is a common secondary ingress vector."
  ],
  "target_industries": [
    "Global / Opportunistic"
  ],
  "motivation": "Opportunistic",
  "threat_actors": [
    "Unknown / Cybercriminal"
  ],
  "target_geographies": [
    "Global"
  ]
}