Antivirus.exe executable file is related to a malevolent application that can properly be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unfunctional as a result of high CPU utilization.
What is Antivirus.exe process?
Antivirus.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Antivirus.exe – Extremely high CPU/GPU use
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as crucial as CPU for system work, so Antivirus.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It often can lead to bad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Antivirus.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First of all, Antivirus.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, since all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely struggle with incredibly slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.
Antivirus.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Antivirus.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Lineinst.exe, Minerhash.exe, Zecminer64.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Antivirus.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative activity coin miners do to your personal computer. Antivirus.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malicious operations effectively, it wrecks the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new notes – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be gone back to the original in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, running at peak level for a long period of time may trigger damage to your machine and increase power costs. Hardware components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and well-protected processor cooling system is hard to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Antivirus.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also tend to have increased wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable case when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Antivirus.exe coin miner virus?
Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a very big lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every installation. Before criticizing these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program and new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Antivirus.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
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.
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.
When your computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
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