\”5.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
\”5.exe process belongs to a malicious application that can properly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much unusable due to high CPU utilization.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review
It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!
When we talk about the intrusion of unfamiliar programs into your computer’s work, the proverb “Forewarned is forearmed” describes the situation as accurately as possible. Gridinsoft Anti-Malware is exactly the tool that is always useful to have in your armory: fast, efficient, up-to-date. It is appropriate to use it as an emergency help at the slightest suspicion of infection.
Gridinsoft Anti-Malware 6-day trial available.
EULA | Privacy Policy | 10% Off Coupon
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to be the first to know about news and our exclusive materials on information security.

What is \”5.exe process?

\”5.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have actually specified before, \”5.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the executive file may be diverse, but the effects are almost always the identical. Considering that coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware capacity of your PC to conduct this process. This virus doesn’t care about the fact that you probably need to use your system for other tasks – it will always consume over 80% of your CPU power.

\”5.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their operations. In that instance, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as essential as CPU for system work, so \”5.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It often can lead to sad effects.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining term means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a high-end PC is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of dozens of video cards to complete their task efficiently. Such computer systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Your device overheats (system unit/laptop body is very hot)
  • You are not able to open your apps or they are opening for ages
  • Unknown process is running in the background and consumes your PC resources
  • Windows Defender does not respond
  • How dangerous is the \”5.exe miner?

    Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system

    Initially, \”5.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, as all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely slow performance. Pages will open up for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who does a job online.

    \”5.exe Technical Summary.

    File Name \”5.exe
    Type Trojan Coin Miner
    Detection Name Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution Method Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behavior Soska.exe, Conhost_rs.exe, Starter.exe
    Removal Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic \”5.exe removal.

    “Visible” harm is not a solitary negative activity coin miners do to your system. \”5.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malevolent operations correctly, it ruins the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the original in the process of system recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your computer slow, performing at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your device and increase power bills. Hardware components are created to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.

    Tiny and covered CPU cooling system is quite hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by \”5.exe virus can easily lead to GPU failure3. Video cards are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely a bad situation when the performance of your graphic card decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get \”5.exe coin miner virus?

    Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources

    Coin miners are one of the most widespread malicious programs among “major” malware. Adware sometimes functions as a carrier for \”5.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that approximately 30% of all malware spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and \”5.exe is just one of them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    One more way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the suspicious site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. For this reason, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for each setup. Before criticizing these people for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your PC.

    How to remove the \”5.exe miner from my PC?

    The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software

    Removing such a virus needs making use of special software. Effective antivirus must have high performance at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization even on weak PCs. On top of that, it is better to have on-run protection in your protection solution – to stop the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these features for various factors. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that goal. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal option that fits each of the specified features.5

    Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since \”5.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU power, it is required to stop it before launching the security program. Otherwise, your scan will last for years, even though the GridinSoft program is pretty lightweight.

    Booting the PC into Safe Mode with Networking

    Press the Start button, then choose Power, and click on Reboot while holding the Shift key on the keyboard.

    Boot into Windows Safe Mode

    Windows will reboot into recovery mode. In that mode, choose Troubleshoot→ Startup Settings→ Safe Mode with Networking. Press the corresponding button on your keyboard to choose that option.

    windows safe mode boot option with command prompt

    When your computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party software, just like the majority of non-crucial system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    Remove \”5.exe coin miner virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

    Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. You can use this anti-malware program for free during its 6-day trial period. In that term, all functions are available, and it takes no payments to remove malware from your system.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware free trial

    After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.

    Scanning in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

    When the scan is finished, press the Clean Now button to remove all detected elements from your system. This procedure takes less than a minute.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware after the scan process

    Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.

    Remove "5.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: "5.exe

    Description: The "5.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This "5.exe will create your CPU to go for very warm temperatures for prolonged periods of time, which could reduce the life of the CPU.

    Operating System: Windows

    Application Category: Trojan

    Sending
    User Review
    3.5 (4 votes)
    Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)

    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
    3. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
    4. Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
    5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

    Spanish Turkish

    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    I'm Robert Bailey, a passionate Security Engineer with a deep fascination for all things related to malware, reverse engineering, and white hat ethical hacking.

    As a white hat hacker, I firmly believe in the power of ethical hacking to bolster security measures. By identifying vulnerabilities and providing solutions, I contribute to the proactive defense of digital infrastructures.

    Leave a Reply

    Sending