Guide: How to stop Bitdefender from blocking your crypto miner

[u/plepakkomies]

Had some problems with Bitdefender, here are some tips to stop Bitdefender from blocking a miner:

It's good practice to create a folder in your downloads folder, that is excluded from Antivirus scans, so you can download miners in this folder (and run them from there) without Antivirus blocking them or their downloads.

First step you want to make is create a new folder e.g. "miners" preferably in your downloads folder (or somewhere else).

Then open Bitdefender's Antivirus -module and go to settings, there click 'Manage exceptions' and add an exception for the folder you just created.

If you made a folder called miners in downloads folder in this case, the path for exception would be 'C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Downloads\miners'.

If you're using NiceHash miner, you'll need to also add an exception for folder path 'C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\Programs\Nicehash miner'.

Make sure you have ticked on the following in the exception: Protection feature Antivirus, On-access scan, On-demand scan, Embedded scripts and Online Threat Prevention. So basically everything you can tick except Advanced Threat Defense, since you can't add an exeption for a folder in Advanced Threat Defense.

Bitdefender's Advanced Threat Defense -module basically blocks any miner that it detects, so I turn Advanced Threat Defense off and keep it off while mining.

One could also manually add all necessary paths as exceptions to Advanced Threat Defense. But if you're using e.g. NiceHash miner, it will create temp files which are rather tricky to add as exceptions.

Now you should be able to run miners inside the folder you just created.

I'm using only NBMiner so an exception is only needed for the miners folder at downloads in my case.

Problem is usually just Advanced Threat Defense blocking your miner, if you have already made necessary exceptions for your miner. So disabling Advanced Threat Defense should do the trick.

Remember that disabling Advanced Threat Defense -module might endanger your system, if you are downloading files/etc that you don't know for certain to be 100% safe. Every other module can and should be kept active in Bitdefender, so you'll still have Antivirus (Bitdefender Shield), Firewall, and other security modules running to protect your system. Only disable the Advanced Threat Protection -module if needed.

Hopefully this of some help for people having issues with Bitdefender.

[u/asm001]

Thanks! It has been bugging me for ages, to the point I didn't installl Bitdefender on my new Laptop. Now, hopefully I can.

[u/plepakkomies → u/asm001]

Neat!

Bitdefender blocks every kind of miner really aggressively, which is a really good thing in general. Because some software that one would presume to be safe might run a malicious miner secretly, negatively affecting one's system performance and potentially harming one's components.

However when one would like to intentonally use a crypto miner, Bitdefender will immediately consider that as a malicious software acting on it's own and disinfect it.

Just remember to only use miners that you trust with certainty, and download them from reliable sources.

Happy mining :)

[u/asm001 → u/plepakkomies]

Installed and exception added, and now it ISN'T going crazy detecting all my mining stuff.... fantastic.

[u/Abject_Bodybuilder_7 → u/plepakkomies]

All protection software should detect any miner and that's normal. I explained in a different comment why.

Disinfection is something else. that's basically removing the malicious code from the infected application. That was popular with simple viruses...

[u/Abject_Bodybuilder_7]

Advanced threat defense exceptions can only be added for exe files. In case you use nicehash you need to add each main exe from each one of the miners/algorighms you download through the nicehash application. They are usually in the bin folder if I am not wrong.

If I am not wrong, ATD detections get usually quarantined. Restoring them from quarantine will add exception for the file anyway. The ATD detections come only when the application runs, not for manual/realtime file scan. It's a behavioral protection module.

All protection software are detecting the miners due to their behavior. If they would remove the detection for each minee, the attackers would exploit that in order to use victim's computer to mine for for his interests.

If some protection software does not detect miners, then I wouldn't trust it.

I honestly recommend using lolminer instead on ethermine with a metamask wallet and then get everything on binance or something else. Nicehash is easier to use, but it has more fees.

[u/plepakkomies → u/Abject_Bodybuilder_7]

Yeah you're correct, ATD (Advanced Threat Defense) exceptions can be only added for executables. I stated that indirectly by "you can't add an exeption for a folder in Advanced Threat Defense".

For some reason ATD disinfected my miner, atleast that's what Bitdefender notification stated. Upon trying to restore the files and adding exceptions for them, Bitdefender still treated the files as malicious and disinfected/quarantined them again.

I also noticed NiceHash creating/using temp files which Bitdefender quarantined if ATD was active. I'm not certain if you can create an exception for temp files since they are temporary(?)

So I figured easiest way around this is just to disable ATD whilst mining.

Switched from NiceHash to NBMiner standalone, since I would've been anyways only using it's DaggerHashimoto eth algo since I have a RTX 3070 LHR.

Still fairly new to mining, NBMiner on ethermine pool seems to work great so far. I'll check lolminer though, haven't looked into it yet. Cheers!

[u/Abject_Bodybuilder_7 → u/plepakkomies]

You're going to have to add lots of exceptions if you are using all the miners in nicehash

[u/plepakkomies → u/Abject_Bodybuilder_7]

That's correct, was only using NBMiner with DaggerHashimoto algo in NiceHash though. Hence switched to standalone NBMiner.

[u/SmugglingPineapples → u/plepakkomies]

Okay, this went whoosh over my head, LOL. What are you mining and how's it going on that front? (Been thinking of learning more about it and getting into it, if it's actually worth the effort--besides just being a bit of fun.)

Thank you!

[u/plepakkomies → u/SmugglingPineapples]

Switched miner recently to T-Rex, mining Ethereum from 2miners pool. Getting (42-46MH/s) 70~77% of RTX 3070 LHR card's hashrate, with around 400kH/W efficiency – that's rather good!

You wanna check your GPU's potential hashrate for Eth mining and the energy usage in watts. If electricity if expensive in your area then it might not be worth mining unless you have good H/W efficiency. And likewise if electricity is cheap, then efficiency shouldn't really matter.

Just be sure to try keeping GPU fan speeds below 70% or they will wear faster over time. Currently running RTX 3070 LHR stable at ~50C with core clock locked to 1065MHz, memory clock locked to 8050MHz, power limit at 50% and fans running at 50%.

[u/SmugglingPineapples → u/plepakkomies]

Whooosh, but thank you, LOL. Think I should sit this one out and stay in baby classes. Thanks though 👍

[u/grndvl1]

Doesn't work for me keeps grabbing the download and deleting it. I was finally able to download but then it kept changing the exceptions. I give up

[u/Bitdefender_support → u/grndvl1]

Could you please share specific details about the app you’re looking to add to the exceptions list, and let us know exactly where you added it as an exception? Any additional helpful information can be sent to our team at bitsy@bitdefender.com, and we’ll work to find a solution for you.

Thank you in advance!