Clear.exe executable file comes from a harmful application that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much unusable due to high CPU utilization.
What is Clear.exe process?
Clear.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually mentioned before, Clear.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the effects are generally the same. Because coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware capacity of your personal computer to conduct this procedure. This malware does not pay attention to the fact that you probably want to use your system for other activities – it will continuously use over 80% of your CPU power.
Clear.exe – Extremely high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Clear.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often may result in bad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining term means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very strong computer is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “general” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Fraudsters 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
How dangerous is the Clear.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Clear.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, because all CPU power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from exceptionally slow efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who works online.
Clear.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Clear.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Usoclient.exe, Asusappservice.exe, Asuslinknear.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Clear.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single negative activity coin miners do to your system. Clear.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malicious operations successfully, it ruins the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new notes – they are added by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be reverted to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your system’s performance, running at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your device and increase electricity costs. Hardware components are created to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered processor cooling system is quite hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if touched while working, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Clear.exe can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also tend to have fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Clear.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 the most prevalent malicious programs among “major” malware. Adware sometimes serves as a carrier for Clear.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that around 30% of all viruses spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Clear.exe is just among them.
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious site as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. Thus, there is a very big lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every installation. Before blaming these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Clear.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, along with the majority of non-crucial 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.
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.
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