Clap.exe executable file belongs to a malevolent program that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly unfunctional due to high CPU usage.
What is Clap.exe process?
Clap.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Clap.exe – Very high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as vital as processor for system work, so Clap.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes may cause bad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Clap.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First off, Clap.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, because all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who does a job online.
Clap.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Clap.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Tone.exe, Xs.exe, Searchfilter.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Clap.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single bad activity coin miners do to your personal computer. Clap.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To perform all malevolent functions properly, it ruins the security components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new notes – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be gone back to the initial state 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 bills. Hardware components are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Compact and well-protected processor fan is hard to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if affected while working, for example, by the user much before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Clap.exe malware can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable case when the performance of your graphic card plunges 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Clap.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
An additional way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the suspicious web page as a part of a program. People who spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Therefore, there is a very big temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every installation. Before criticizing these individuals for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus software as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Clap.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 applications, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC 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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