Asd.exe process is related to a malicious application that can correctly be defined as a coin miner virus. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unfunctional as a result of high CPU use.
What is Asd.exe process?
Asd.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have specified previously, Asd.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be different, however, the effects are usually the same. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware power of your personal computer to perform this process. This virus doesn’t care about the fact that you may want to make use of your system for other activities – it will always use over 80% of your CPU power.
Asd.exe – Very high CPU as well as GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that instance, you will struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as important as processor for system work, so Asd.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It often can result in sad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Crypto mining is a term that means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful computer is required. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Fraudsters who make profit 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
How dangerous is the Asd.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Asd.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, as all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience incredibly slow efficiency. Pages can open for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.
Asd.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Asd.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Windeg.exe, Dll.exe, Init.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Asd.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single negative thing coin miners do to your personal computer. Asd.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To complete all malicious functions effectively, it ruins the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your computer’s performance, running at peak power for long times may cause damage to your device and increase power bills. PC components are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected processor cooling system is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while spinning, for instance, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Asd.exe can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also tend to have fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad case when the performance of your GPU decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Asd.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 through “serious” viruses. Adware sometimes works as a carrier for Asd.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that approximately 30% of all viruses spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Asd.exe is right with them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy web page as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a very big lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every setup. Before blaming these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program and new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Asd.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 involves using specific software. Appropriate security tool should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization even on weak computers. In addition, it is recommended to have on-run protection in your security solution – to halt the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these elements for different factors. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb choice that fits all of the specified features.5
Before the malware removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Asd.exe miner consumes a lot of processor power, it is needed to halt 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.
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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, just like the majority of non-critical Windows 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 Asd.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.
After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.
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.
Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.
Remove Asd.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Asd.exe
Description: The Asd.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Asd.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
User Review
( votes)References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
- Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
