Cmd.exe process comes from a harmful application that can properly be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unfunctional due to high CPU usage.
What is Cmd.exe process?
Cmd.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually specified in the previous paragraph, Cmd.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, but the consequences are generally the same. Because coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware capacity of your personal computer to run this process. This malware does not pay attention to the fact that you may need to use your desktop for other tasks – it will consistently take over 80% of your CPU power.
Cmd.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as essential as processor for system work, so Cmd.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes can lead to bad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining is a term that means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong PC is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms usually consist of dozens of GPUs to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Fraudsters who make profit 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 Cmd.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Cmd.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all CPU power is consumed 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 experience extremely slow performance. Pages can open up for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that works online.
Cmd.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Cmd.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Wirelesskb850notificationservice.exe, Skypeapp.exe, Skypebackgroundhost.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Cmd.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary negative activity coin miners perform to your computer. Cmd.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To complete all malevolent operations effectively, it wrecks the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the original in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your computer, running at peak power for a long period of time may trigger damage to your device as well as increase electricity bills. Hardware elements are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and well-protected processor cooling system is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for instance, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Cmd.exe can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted case when the performance of your GPU decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Cmd.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 widespread malevolent programs among “major” malware. Adware frequently serves as a carrier for Cmd.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that about 30% of all malware spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Cmd.exe is right among them.
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy web page as a part of a program. People 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 include malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each setup. Before criticizing these individuals 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 PC.
How to remove the Cmd.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 programs, just like the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC without dealing with high CPU 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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