Axinstui.exe Virus (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Axinstui.exe executable file comes from a harmful program that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system almost nonfunctional due to high CPU use.

What is Axinstui.exe process?

Axinstui.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Axinstui.exe Windows Process

Axinstui.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as crucial as CPU for system work, so Axinstui.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It often may cause bad results.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Extremely bad performance
  • CPU/GPU cooler fan creates a lot of noise
  • High temperature of the device (for laptops)
  • 80-90% consumption of CPU/GPU resources by an unknown process
  • Microsoft Defender is not working
  • How dangerous is the Axinstui.exe miner?

    Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system

    First, Axinstui.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, because all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, 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 experience incredibly sluggish performance. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that does a job online.

    Axinstui.exe Technical Summary.

    File Name Axinstui.exe
    Type Trojan Coin Miner
    Detection Name Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution Method Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behavior Auditpol.exe, Authhost.exe, Atbroker.exe
    Removal Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Axinstui.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your personal computer. Axinstui.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malicious operations properly, it wrecks the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides decreasing your system’s performance, running at peak power for a long period of time may trigger damage to your device as well as raise electricity bills. PC components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.

    Tiny and well-protected CPU fan is hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Axinstui.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have very fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an undesirable situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.

    How did I get Axinstui.exe coin miner virus?

    Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    An additional way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the suspicious web page as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to make money. For this reason, there is a huge temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each setup. Prior to criticizing these individuals for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus program and new parts for your desktop.

    How to remove the Axinstui.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.

    Boot into Windows Safe Mode

    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.

    windows safe mode boot option with command prompt

    When your PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-crucial system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.

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    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    Security engineer focused on malware behavior, removal workflows, and Windows hardening. Robert reviews threat articles for practical accuracy, checking detection names, symptoms, and cleanup steps before publication.

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