Chek.exe executable file is related to a harmful program that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unusable because of high CPU utilization.
What is Chek.exe process?
Chek.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Chek.exe – Very high CPU as well as GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Chek.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes may lead to unhappy results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Chek.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, Chek.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, because all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your needs, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with exceptionally sluggish performance. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who works online.
Chek.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Chek.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Exlorer.exe, C.exe, Config.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Chek.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single negative activity coin miners perform to your computer. Chek.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malevolent operations effectively, it wrecks the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new entries – they are added by this coin miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments are about to be gone back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak level for long times may cause damage to your device as well as raise electricity bills. Hardware elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered CPU cooling system is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while working, for instance, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Chek.exe virus can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also tend to have fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad situation when the performance of your GPU plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Chek.exe coin miner virus?
Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
One more way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the suspicious site as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a huge lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every setup. Before blaming these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay 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 desktop.
How to remove the Chek.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.
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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party software, just like the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
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