Changepk.exe process comes from a malevolent program that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly unfunctional because of high CPU use.
What is Changepk.exe process?
Changepk.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually pointed out in the previous paragraph, Changepk.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be different, however, the impacts are generally the identical. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware capacity of your PC to conduct this process. This virus does not care about the fact that you may need to make use of your computer for other tasks – it will continuously consume over 80% of your processor power.
Changepk.exe – Very high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners additionally use 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 important as processor for system work, so Changepk.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It often can cause unhappy effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a strong desktop is needed. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of tens and hundreds of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “general” 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 Changepk.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, Changepk.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, as all processor power is consumed by a malware. 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 extremely slow performance. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that works online.
Changepk.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Changepk.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Certenrollctrl.exe, Certreq.exe, Camerasettingsuihost.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Changepk.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single bad thing coin miners perform to your personal computer. Changepk.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malicious operations correctly, it ruins the security components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be reverted to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, running at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your machine as well as increase electricity expenses. Hardware components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered processor fan is hard to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Changepk.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Video cards are also prone to have fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable situation when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Changepk.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 widespread malicious programs through “major” malware. Adware often acts as a carrier for Changepk.exe malware infiltration: it demonstrates you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that around 30% of all viruses spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Changepk.exe is just among them.
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 dubious web page as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a very big temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for each setup. Before blaming these guys for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program and new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Changepk.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Getting rid of such a virus demands the use of special program. Appropriate security tool must have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization also on weak PCs. Furthermore, it is better to have on-run protection in your protection solution – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these elements for different reasons. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that goal. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal choice that fits each of the specified characteristics.4
Before the malware removal, it is important to reboot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Changepk.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 software, just like the majority of non-critical Windows components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Changepk.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 Changepk.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Changepk.exe
Description: The Changepk.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Changepk.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.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
