Brave.exe process belongs to a malevolent program that can accurately be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer almost nonfunctional because of high CPU use.
What is Brave.exe process?
Brave.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually mentioned in the previous paragraph, Brave.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, however, the consequences are usually the identical. Because coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware power of your personal computer to perform this procedure. This virus does not care about the fact that you probably want to make use of your machine for other tasks – it will always use over 80% of your processor power.
Brave.exe – Really high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Brave.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often can result in sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Crypto mining term means the action 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 strong machine is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of graphic cards to complete their task efficiently. Such computer systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who gain money 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 Brave.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, Brave.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, since all CPU power is used 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 web browser is open, you will likely suffer from incredibly slow performance. Pages can open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that does a job online.
Brave.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Brave.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Rovwer.exe, Winring0x64.sys, Novpopen.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Brave.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single bad activity coin miners do to your computer. Brave.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious functions correctly, it wrecks the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes 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, performing at peak power for a long period of time may cause damage to your device and increase electricity costs. PC components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected processor fan is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while spinning, for instance, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Brave.exe virus can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable case when the performance of your GPU decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Brave.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 widespread malevolent programs through “major” malware. Adware often works as a carrier for Brave.exe malware infiltration: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that approximately 30% of all malware spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Brave.exe is just with them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy website 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 make money. For this reason, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for each setup. Before blaming these individuals for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus program as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Brave.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 needs making use of special program. Proper anti-malware program should have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage also on weak PCs. In addition, it is recommended to have proactive security in your protection tool – to prevent the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these features for various reasons. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a great choice that fits each of the specified qualities.5
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Brave.exe miner takes a lot of CPU capacity, it is needed to stop 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 apps, 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 Brave.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 Brave.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Brave.exe
Description: The Brave.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Brave.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.
