Ctfmom.exe process belongs to a malicious program that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer pretty much unfunctional due to high CPU use.
What is Ctfmom.exe process?
Ctfmom.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have mentioned before, Ctfmom.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the impacts are usually the same. Considering that coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware capacity of your desktop to run this process. This malware does not pay attention to the fact that you probably want to make use of your PC for other activities – it will consistently use over 80% of your CPU power.
Ctfmom.exe – Very high CPU/GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as essential as processor for system work, so Ctfmom.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes may result in bad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining term means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong machine is needed. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms usually consist of tens and hundreds of GPUs to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Ctfmom.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Ctfmom.exe virus makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, because all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.
Ctfmom.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Ctfmom.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 Ctfmom.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single bad activity coin miners perform to your PC. Ctfmom.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malevolent functions correctly, it wrecks the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton 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 thrown back to the original in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak level for a long period of time may cause damage to your machine as well as increase power costs. PC elements 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 well-protected CPU cooling system is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked 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 Ctfmom.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also prone to have fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Ctfmom.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 common malevolent programs among “serious” malware. Adware often serves as a carrier for Ctfmom.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that approximately 30% of all viruses spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Ctfmom.exe is right among 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 untrustworthy website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a very big lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every setup. Prior to blaming these people for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Ctfmom.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Removing such a virus needs the use of special tool. Proper antivirus should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization even on weak computers. On top of that, it is recommended to have on-run security in your security tool – to halt the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions 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 great choice that fits all of the mentioned characteristics.5
Prior to the malware removal, it is important to reboot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Ctfmom.exe miner consumes a lot of processor capacity, it is needed 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 apps, along with the majority of non-crucial system components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
Remove Ctfmom.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 Ctfmom.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Ctfmom.exe
Description: The Ctfmom.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Ctfmom.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.
