Atiflash.exe process is related to a harmful program that can accurately be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system almost unusable due to high CPU utilization.
What is Atiflash.exe process?
Atiflash.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Atiflash.exe – Very high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Atiflash.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often can cause bad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Atiflash.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Atiflash.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, as all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience incredibly slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that does a job online.
Atiflash.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Atiflash.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Data00.vji, Unrealcefsubprocess.exe, 2nd.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Atiflash.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your computer. Atiflash.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To execute all malevolent functions successfully, it wrecks the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments 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, performing at peak power for long times may cause damage to your machine and raise power expenses. PC components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected processor cooling system is hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for instance, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Atiflash.exe can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have very fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an undesirable case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Atiflash.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 thing on your computer is by downloading it from the unreliable site as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a huge temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for each setup. Before criticizing these people for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Atiflash.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 software, just like the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high CPU 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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