Cd.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Cd.exe process belongs to a malicious program that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly unfunctional because of high CPU use.
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What is Cd.exe process?

Cd.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have mentioned before, Cd.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the effects are usually the same. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware capacity of your desktop to perform this procedure. This virus does not care about the fact that you may want to use your device for other activities – it will always consume over 80% of your CPU power.

Cd.exe Windows Process

Cd.exe – Very high CPU and GPU usage

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Cd.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often may lead to unhappy results.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining term means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful machine is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of graphic cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “normal” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who gain money 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

  • 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 Cd.exe miner?

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

    Initially, Cd.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, because all processor power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from exceptionally sluggish efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.

    Cd.exe Technical Summary.

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

    “Visible” damage is not a solitary negative activity coin miners perform to your PC. Cd.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To perform all malevolent functions correctly, it wrecks the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be reverted to the original in the process of PC recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your PC slow, running at peak level for long times may cause damage to your machine as well as increase power expenses. PC elements are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.

    Tiny and covered processor cooling system is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for example, by the user much before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Cd.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also tend to have fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an undesirable case when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Cd.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 common malicious programs through “serious” malware. Adware sometimes functions as a carrier for Cd.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that approximately 30% of all malware spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Cd.exe is just one of them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    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 dubious website as a part of a program. People who spread hacked variants of well-known 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 app and acquire a coin for every installation. Prior to blaming these people for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your desktop.

    How to remove the Cd.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 the use of special program. Effective antivirus must have high capability at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage even on weak computers. In addition, it is better to have on-run security in your protection solution – to halt the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these elements for various factors. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal option that fits each of the specified features.5

    Before the malware removal, it is important to reboot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Cd.exe miner takes a lot of processor power, it is needed 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.

    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 apps, just like the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Cd.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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware free trial

    After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.

    Scanning in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

    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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware after the scan process

    Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.

    Remove Cd.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Cd.exe

    Description: The Cd.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Cd.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

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    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
    3. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
    4. Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
    5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    I'm Robert Bailey, a passionate Security Engineer with a deep fascination for all things related to malware, reverse engineering, and white hat ethical hacking.

    As a white hat hacker, I firmly believe in the power of ethical hacking to bolster security measures. By identifying vulnerabilities and providing solutions, I contribute to the proactive defense of digital infrastructures.

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