Suspicious Crypto Miner User Agents in Proxy Logs
Flags proxy requests with User-Agent prefixes tied to XMRig or CCMiner crypto miners.
FreeReviewedSigma · High · v2
- Category
- proxy
- Author
- Florian Roth (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
- Published
- 2019-10-21
- Updated
- 2026-07-31
ATT&CK techniques
C2Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule flags proxy log events where the client user agent begins with known crypto miner identifiers ("XMRig " or "ccminer"). Attackers and bot operators often use miners with distinct user agents, so matching these strings helps identify potential unauthorized mining activity. Detection relies on proxy telemetry that records HTTP user agent values for incoming requests.
Reporting behind it
- github.comhttps://github.com/xmrig/xmrig/blob/da22b3e6c45825f3ac1f208255126cb8585cd4fc/src/base/kernel/Platform_win.cpp#L65
- github.comhttps://github.com/xmrig/xmrig/blob/427b6516e0550200c17ca28675118f0fffcc323f/src/version.h
- github.comhttps://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/web/proxy_generic/proxy_ua_cryptominer.yml
Changelog
v2- v2Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v1No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
suspicious-proxy-user-agents-for-crypto-miners-xmrig-ccminer-fa935401
title: Suspicious Crypto Miner User Agents in Proxy Logs
id: 135e00a8-4ae8-45ca-9453-148edc1bbc56
status: test
description: This rule flags proxy log events where the client user agent begins with known crypto miner identifiers ("XMRig " or "ccminer"). Attackers and bot operators often use miners with distinct user agents, so matching these strings helps identify potential unauthorized mining activity. Detection relies on proxy telemetry that records HTTP user agent values for incoming requests.
references:
- https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig/blob/da22b3e6c45825f3ac1f208255126cb8585cd4fc/src/base/kernel/Platform_win.cpp#L65
- https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig/blob/427b6516e0550200c17ca28675118f0fffcc323f/src/version.h
- https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/web/proxy_generic/proxy_ua_cryptominer.yml
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Huntrule Team
date: 2019-10-21
modified: 2021-11-27
tags:
- attack.command-and-control
- attack.t1071.001
logsource:
category: proxy
detection:
selection:
c-useragent|startswith:
- "XMRig "
- ccminer
condition: selection
falsepositives:
- Unknown
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
- id: fa935401-513b-467b-81f4-f9e77aa0dd78
type: derived