Cll.exe process belongs to a malevolent application that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly nonfunctional as a result of high CPU use.
What is Cll.exe process?
Cll.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Cll.exe – Very high CPU as well as 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 essential as CPU for system work, so Cll.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often can result in unhappy consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Cll.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Cll.exe virus makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, as all CPU power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience exceptionally sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who does a job online.
Cll.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Cll.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Aggregatorhost.exe, Windows.security, Drive.watchdog |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Cll.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners do to your system. Cll.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To conduct all malevolent operations properly, it ruins the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid detection. 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 computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be gone back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your system’s performance, performing at peak level for a long period of time may trigger damage to your machine as well as raise electricity expenses. PC components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered CPU cooling system is not very easy to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if affected while working, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Cll.exe malware can easily lead to GPU failure3. Video cards are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when the performance of your GPU decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Cll.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 computer is by downloading it from the suspicious website as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a very big lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for every installation. Before blaming these people for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Cll.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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, just like the majority of non-critical Windows components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the system without dealing with high CPU 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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