Cortana.exe process belongs to a malicious application that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost unusable as a result of high CPU use.
What is Cortana.exe process?
Cortana.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have pointed out earlier, Cortana.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the executive file may be diverse, but the effects are generally the same. Considering that coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware capacity of your PC to run this operation. This malware doesn’t take note of the fact that you may want to make use of your desktop for other tasks – it will constantly use over 80% of your processor power.
Cortana.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as vital as processor for system work, so Cortana.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It often may result in bad consequences.
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 operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong PC is needed. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms usually consist 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. Crooks 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 Cortana.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, Cortana.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, since all CPU power is used 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 experience incredibly slow performance. Pages can open for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person who works online.
Cortana.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Cortana.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Dutcdecoderhost.exe, Dataexchangehost.exe, Igfxext.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Cortana.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your PC. Cortana.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malicious operations properly, it ruins the security components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes shall be gone back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your computer, performing at peak power for a long period of time can cause damage to your machine as well as raise power bills. Hardware components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered processor cooling system is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if affected while working, for instance, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Cortana.exe can easily lead to GPU failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Cortana.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 one of the most common malicious programs among “severe” viruses. Adware frequently works as a carrier for Cortana.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that approximately 30% of all viruses spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Cortana.exe is right one of them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the suspicious web page as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for each installation. Prior to blaming these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Cortana.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Getting rid of such a virus involves using special program. Appropriate antivirus should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization even on weak computers. Furthermore, it is recommended to have on-run security in your security solution – to prevent the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these features for different reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect option that fits all of the specified characteristics.5
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to reboot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Cortana.exe miner consumes a lot of processor power, it is required to stop it before launching the security program. Otherwise, your scan will last for years, even though the GridinSoft program is pretty lightweight.
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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, just like the majority of non-crucial system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Cortana.exe coin miner virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware
Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. You can use this anti-malware program for free during its 6-day trial period. In that term, all functions are available, and it takes no payments to remove malware from your system.
After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.
When the scan is finished, press the Clean Now button to remove all detected elements from your system. This procedure takes less than a minute.
Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.
Remove Cortana.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Cortana.exe
Description: The Cortana.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Cortana.exe will create your CPU to go for very warm temperatures for prolonged periods of time, which could reduce the life of the CPU.
Operating System: Windows
Application Category: Trojan
User Review
( votes)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.
- Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
