That's "precracked" software, which is big enough to disguise the presence of malware. I was talking more about patches/keygens to be applied, which are relatively tiny compared to a cryptominer (and, although I'm not sure about recent times since I've been out of the scene for over a decade, crackers used to be quite skilled and proud of making their releases tiny.)

It is possible. But there are respectable websites with cracked software which generally does not allow for malware. If you would be a little bit picky and careful, the chances are not that high.