Among.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Among.exe process comes from a harmful program that can accurately be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer almost unfunctional because of high CPU use.
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What is Among.exe process?

Among.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have actually mentioned earlier, Among.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the impacts are usually the same. Considering that coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware power of your personal computer to perform this operation. This malware doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you probably need to use your machine for other tasks – it will consistently take over 80% of your processor power.

Among.exe Windows Process

Among.exe – Really high CPU as well as GPU use

Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Among.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes can lead to sad consequences.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining term means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful computer is needed. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of GPUs to complete their task efficiently. Such computer systems are not usable for “general” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Extremely bad performance
  • CPU/GPU cooler fan creates a lot of noise
  • High temperature of the device (for laptops)
  • 80-90% consumption of CPU/GPU resources by an unknown process
  • Microsoft Defender is not working
  • How dangerous is the Among.exe miner?

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

    First off, Among.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, as all processor power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from incredibly sluggish efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that does a job online.

    Among.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameAmong.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorCaptures.exe, Flbmusic.exe, Itibiti.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Among.exe removal.

    “Visible” harm is not a solitary bad activity coin miners do to your personal computer. Among.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malevolent functions properly, it wrecks the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments are about to be reverted to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your machine as well as raise power costs. Hardware components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.

    Small and well-protected CPU cooling system is hard to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Among.exe virus can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Video cards are also tend to have fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Among.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 the most prevalent malicious programs among “serious” viruses. Adware frequently works as a carrier for Among.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that approximately 30% of all viruses spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Among.exe is just one of them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    An additional way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the suspicious website as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every installation. Prior to blaming these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software and new parts for your desktop.

    How to remove the Among.exe miner from my PC?

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

    Getting rid of such a virus demands making use of specific tool. Effective anti-malware program should have high performance at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage even on weak PCs. On top of that, it is recommended to have on-run protection in your security solution – to halt the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender lacks these functions for various factors. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb option that fits each of the discussed qualities.5

    Prior to the virus removal, it is important to reboot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Among.exe miner takes a lot of CPU capacity, it is needed 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 programs, along with the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Among.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 Among.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Among.exe

    Description: The Among.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Among.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

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    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.

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    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.

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