Claude AI identifies cryptocurrency miner causing Mac to reach 112°C

A Mac user discovered a cryptocurrency mining malware infection after using Anthropic’s Claude AI to develop a temperature monitoring tool. While analyzing sensor data to troubleshoot performance issues, the AI identified a process named XMRig that was consuming approximately 1175% of the CPU, equivalent to nearly 12 CPU cores.

The unauthorized mining activity caused the device's temperature to reach 112 degrees Celsius, resulting in significant overheating and slow performance. The investigation revealed that the XMRig software was connected to the HashVault mining pool and had established persistence on the system through disguised LaunchAgent startup items, allowing it to restart automatically even if manually terminated.

The user speculated that the infection may have originated from a cracked audio plugin. Following the AI's analysis and guidance, the user was able to isolate suspicious files and terminate the processes, eventually confirming the system was clean after a scan with Malwarebytes.