Cat.exe process is related to a harmful application that can properly be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer roughly nonfunctional as a result of high CPU utilization.
What is Cat.exe process?
Cat.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have mentioned previously, Cat.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the executive file can be diverse, however, the effects are almost always the same. Considering that coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware capacity of your personal computer to conduct this operation. This malware doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you probably want to use your PC for other activities – it will consistently consume over 80% of your processor power.
Cat.exe – Very high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as crucial as processor for system work, so Cat.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes can cause sad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining is a term that means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful desktop is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of dozens of graphic cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who make profit 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 Cat.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Cat.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, since 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 experience incredibly slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.
Cat.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Cat.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | 1.exe, Eml.exe, V4_tool.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Cat.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single negative thing coin miners do to your computer. Cat.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To perform all malevolent operations effectively, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are added by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be gone back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your PC, running at peak level for a long period of time can cause damage to your machine as well as raise electricity expenses. PC elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected processor fan is hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, 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 Cat.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted case when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Cat.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 one of the most prevalent malicious programs among “major” viruses. Adware often functions as a carrier for Cat.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that approximately 30% of all viruses spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Cat.exe is right with them.4
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 untrustworthy site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every setup. Before blaming these individuals for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus program and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Cat.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Eliminating such a virus needs making use of specific program. Proper antivirus should have high performance at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization also on weak PCs. On top of that, it is recommended to have on-run protection in your security solution – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these features for various factors. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal option that fits all of the specified features.5
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Cat.exe miner takes a lot of processor power, 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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
Remove Cat.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 Cat.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Cat.exe
Description: The Cat.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Cat.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.
