Chromesetup.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Chromesetup.exe process belongs to a malicious program that can accurately be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost unfunctional due to high CPU usage.
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What is Chromesetup.exe process?

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

As I have specified before, Chromesetup.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the executive file can be diverse, however, the impacts are generally the identical. Considering that coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware capacity of your desktop to perform this procedure. This virus doesn’t care about the fact that you may want to use your device for other activities – it will continuously consume over 80% of your CPU power.

Chromesetup.exe Windows Process

Chromesetup.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that instance, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as essential as CPU for system work, so Chromesetup.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often can lead to bad results.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining term means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful PC is needed. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of graphic cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “general” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Crooks who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ computers 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 Chromesetup.exe miner?

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

    Initially, Chromesetup.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, 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 experience exceptionally slow performance. Pages will open for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that works online.

    Chromesetup.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameChromesetup.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorPc_pcpc.exe, Windows.service, Packs.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Chromesetup.exe removal.

    “Visible” harm is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your personal computer. Chromesetup.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious functions effectively, it ruins the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new notes – 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, running at peak level for a long period of time may trigger damage to your machine as well as increase 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 well-protected processor cooling system is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if affected while spinning, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Chromesetup.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable case when the performance of your graphic card plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.

    How did I get Chromesetup.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 malevolent programs through “major” viruses. Adware frequently functions as a carrier for Chromesetup.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that around 30% of all viruses spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Chromesetup.exe is right with them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    Another way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the untrustworthy site as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Hence, there is a huge temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every setup. Prior to criticizing these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software and new parts for your desktop.

    How to remove the Chromesetup.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 needs the use of special tool. Effective antivirus should have high performance at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization also on weak PCs. On top of that, it is better to have on-run security in your security solution – to halt the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender lacks these features for different reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb choice that fits all of the specified characteristics.5

    Before the malware removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Chromesetup.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU power, it is required 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.

    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 applications, along with the majority of non-critical system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Chromesetup.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 Chromesetup.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Chromesetup.exe

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