Asus.exe executable file comes from a harmful program that can accurately be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer roughly unusable as a result of high CPU usage.
What is Asus.exe process?
Asus.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Asus.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Asus.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes can lead to sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Asus.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Asus.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, because all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience extremely 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 works online.
Asus.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Asus.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | 12.exe, Msiexec64.exe, Conhost.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Asus.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners do to your computer. Asus.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To conduct all malicious functions properly, it ruins the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments are about to be thrown 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 and increase power costs. PC components are created to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and well-protected CPU fan is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while spinning, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Asus.exe can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also prone to have fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is surely an undesirable situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Asus.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
An additional way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the unreliable website as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Hence, there is a huge temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for every installation. Prior to criticizing these individuals for hacking and malware distribution, 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 figure for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Asus.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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, along with 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.
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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