Cmstp.exe process is related to a harmful application that can properly be defined as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer roughly unusable because of high CPU usage.
What is Cmstp.exe process?
Cmstp.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Cmstp.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Cmstp.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes may lead to sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Cmstp.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Cmstp.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, because all CPU power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from incredibly sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person who works online.
Cmstp.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Cmstp.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Other.exe, Psiphon3.exe, Lschax.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Cmstp.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your computer. Cmstp.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To carry out all malicious operations properly, it ruins the security components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan 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 system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, running at peak power for a long period of time may trigger damage to your machine as well as increase electricity bills. PC components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Small and well-protected processor fan is not very easy to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if affected while spinning, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Cmstp.exe miner can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely a bad situation when the performance of your graphic card plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Cmstp.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
Another way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious web page as a part of a program. People that 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 add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each setup. Before blaming these guys for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Cmstp.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 software, just like the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability 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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