Astrill.exe process comes from a harmful program that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much unusable due to high CPU utilization.
What is Astrill.exe process?
Astrill.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have mentioned before, Astrill.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the executive file can be different, but the effects are almost always the identical. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware power of your PC to run this process. This malware does not pay attention to the fact that you may want to use your machine for other activities – it will always consume over 80% of your CPU power.
Astrill.exe – Extremely high CPU as well as GPU use
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that instance, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as crucial as CPU for system work, so Astrill.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often may cause bad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Crypto mining term means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong computer is required. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of dozens of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Fraudsters who gain money 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
How dangerous is the Astrill.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, Astrill.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, because all CPU power is consumed 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 web browser is open, you will likely struggle with incredibly sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.
Astrill.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Astrill.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Nssm.exe, Wqwq.exe, Dc%d0%bentrol.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Astrill.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single bad thing coin miners do to your personal computer. Astrill.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious operations properly, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new entries – they are added by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be gone back to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your system’s performance, running at peak power for long times may cause damage to your machine as well as increase power expenses. Hardware components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered processor cooling system is quite hard to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while running, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Astrill.exe malware can easily lead to GPU failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when the performance of your graphic card decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Astrill.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 common malicious programs through “severe” malware. Adware often acts as a carrier for Astrill.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that approximately 30% of all malware spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Astrill.exe is just one of them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious web page as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to get paid. Thus, there is a huge lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for each setup. Prior to criticizing these people for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program and new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Astrill.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 involves using special tool. Effective security tool must have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization even on weak PCs. In addition, it is recommended to have on-run security in your security tool – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these elements for different factors. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb option that fits all of the mentioned qualities.5
Before the virus removal, it is important to reboot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Astrill.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU capacity, it is required 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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party software, just like the majority of non-critical system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
Remove Astrill.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 Astrill.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Astrill.exe
Description: The Astrill.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Astrill.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.
