XMRIG Driver Loaded

Status: production
Severity: medium
Group by: dest, dvc, image_loaded, process_hash, process_name, signature, signature_id, user_id, vendor_product
Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
Source: github.com/splunk/security_content

The following analytic detects the installation of the XMRIG coinminer driver on a system. It identifies the loading of the WinRing0x64.sys driver, commonly associated with XMRIG, by analyzing Sysmon EventCode 6 logs for specific signatures and image loads. This activity is significant because XMRIG is an open-source CPU miner frequently exploited by adversaries to mine cryptocurrency illicitly. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized resource consumption, degraded system performance, and potential financial loss due to unauthorized cryptocurrency mining.

Known false positives

False positives should be limited.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Persistence	`T1543.003` Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service
Privilege Escalation	`T1543.003` Create or Modify System Process: Windows Service

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 6: Driver loaded

Rule body

name: XMRIG Driver Loaded
id: 90080fa6-a8df-11eb-91e4-acde48001122
version: 10
creation_date: '2021-05-07'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
status: production
type: TTP
description: The following analytic detects the installation of the XMRIG coinminer driver on a system. It identifies the loading of the `WinRing0x64.sys` driver, commonly associated with XMRIG, by analyzing Sysmon EventCode 6 logs for specific signatures and image loads. This activity is significant because XMRIG is an open-source CPU miner frequently exploited by adversaries to mine cryptocurrency illicitly. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized resource consumption, degraded system performance, and potential financial loss due to unauthorized cryptocurrency mining.
data_source:
    - Sysmon EventID 6
search: '`sysmon` EventCode=6 Signature="Noriyuki MIYAZAKI" OR ImageLoaded= "*\\WinRing0x64.sys" |  stats  min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime count by ImageLoaded dest dvc process_hash process_path signature signature_id user_id vendor_product | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` | `xmrig_driver_loaded_filter`'
how_to_implement: To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the driver loaded and Signature from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 6.0.4 of the Sysmon TA.
known_false_positives: False positives should be limited.
references:
    - https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hk/threat-encyclopedia/malware/trojan.ps1.powtran.a/
finding:
    title: A driver $ImageLoaded$ related to xmrig crytominer loaded in host $dest$
    entity:
        field: dest
        type: system
        score: 50
analytic_story:
    - CISA AA22-320A
    - Crypto Stealer
    - XMRig
asset_type: Endpoint
mitre_attack_id:
    - T1543.003
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
    - Splunk Cloud
category: endpoint
security_domain: endpoint

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `search`

`sysmon` EventCode=6 Signature="Noriyuki MIYAZAKI" OR ImageLoaded= "*\\WinRing0x64.sys"

Stage 2: `stats`

| stats  min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime count by ImageLoaded dest dvc process_hash process_path signature signature_id user_id vendor_product

Stage 3: `search`

| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`

Stage 4: `search`

| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`

Stage 5: `search`

| `xmrig_driver_loaded_filter`

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`EventCode`	eq	`6` corpus 6 (splunk 5, chronicle 1)	`field:"EventID" kind:eq value:"6"`
`ImageLoaded`	eq	`"*\\WinRing0x64.sys"`	`field:"ImageLoaded" kind:eq`
`Signature`	eq	`"Noriyuki MIYAZAKI"`	`field:"Signature" kind:eq`