Config.exe process belongs to a harmful application that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly unusable due to high CPU usage.
What is Config.exe process?
Config.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Config.exe – Very high CPU/GPU use
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as essential as processor for system work, so Config.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes may lead to bad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Config.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, Config.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, since all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your needs, 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 suffer from extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages can open for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.
Config.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Config.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Sessionmsg.exe, Explorer.exe, Moxia.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Config.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary bad activity coin miners perform to your PC. Config.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious operations properly, it wrecks the security features 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 load of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be thrown back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, performing at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your machine as well as raise power bills. PC 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 covered CPU fan is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for example, by the user much before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Config.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also tend to have fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is surely a bad situation when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Config.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 PC is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. People who spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to get paid. For this reason, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for each setup. Before blaming these guys for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program and new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Config.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 programs, just like the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the computer 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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