Cthelper.exe process belongs to a malevolent program that can properly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unusable due to high CPU usage.
What is Cthelper.exe process?
Cthelper.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have pointed out before, Cthelper.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the executive file can be diverse, but the effects are usually the same. Because coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware power of your PC to run this process. This malware doesn’t care about the fact that you probably need to make use of your computer for other tasks – it will consistently take over 80% of your CPU power.
Cthelper.exe – Extremely high CPU/GPU use
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their operations. In that instance, you will struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as essential as CPU for system work, so Cthelper.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It often may result in sad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Crypto mining term means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful PC is required. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of tens and hundreds of graphic cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who gain money 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 Cthelper.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, Cthelper.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, because 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 extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.
Cthelper.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Cthelper.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Ccleaner64.exe, Chrmstp.exe, Adobearm.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Cthelper.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single bad activity coin miners do to your system. Cthelper.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malevolent functions effectively, it ruins the security components 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 lot of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments are about to be gone back to the original in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, running at peak power for a long period of time may cause damage to your device as well as increase electricity costs. PC elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and covered processor fan is hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if touched while working, for instance, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Cthelper.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable case when the performance of your GPU decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Cthelper.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 “serious” malware. Adware frequently serves as a carrier for Cthelper.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that around 30% of all malware spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Cthelper.exe is right with them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the suspicious web page as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a huge temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for each setup. Before blaming these individuals for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program and new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Cthelper.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Eliminating such a virus requires making use of special program. Appropriate anti-malware program should have high performance at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization even on weak PCs. Furthermore, it is better to have proactive protection in your security tool – to stop the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for various factors. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb option that fits all of the discussed qualities.5
Before the virus removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Cthelper.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU capacity, it is needed to halt 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 system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
Remove Cthelper.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 Cthelper.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Cthelper.exe
Description: The Cthelper.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Cthelper.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.
