What is Cryptojacking? (Part 1)

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin attained the attention of all the world in a previous couple of years followed by the scientific paper by Satoshi Nakamoto namely Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. However, the common misunderstanding between people is to understand the difference between the Blockchain and the Bitcoin. To sum it all, Blockchain is the algorithm on which Bitcoin works. We can say Bitcoin is one application of Blockchain. To know more about Blockchain and Bitcoin go through the References [1].
In Bitcoin, the process by which Cryptocurrency transactions are verified and added to a public ledger (Blockchain) is known as Cryptomining. Also, Cryptomining is the mean by which new cryptocurrency coins are released [2]. Cryptomining consumes a lot of computing power while processing. Therefore, it’s a pain for Cryptocurrency Industry.
Hackers are using covert attack tactics on Cryptocurrencies as it’s lucrative for them since the prices of Bitcoin is skyrocketed in a couple of years. Cryptojacking is an attack spiked in the first half of 2018 in which secret use of computing device is done to perform Cryptomining operations. In Cryptojacking, victim unknowingly installs the program that secretly mines the Cryptocurrencies. Drive-by download and Browser-based mining are the two most common approach of implementing Cryptojacking. (Figure.1) will explain the scenario:-

Recently, I have encountered the Cryptominers while performing Configuration Review of one server and this is how it looks like (Figure.2) :-

There are various ways of performing Cryptojacking [3]. We will discuss the implementation in next chapter (Part 2) along with the mitigation and rectification for the same.
Meanwhile, do read about it :)
References
[1] BlockGeeks
