Drill.exe Virus (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Drill.exe executable file belongs to a harmful program that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost unusable as a result of high CPU use.

What is Drill.exe process?

Drill.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Drill.exe Windows Process

Drill.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Drill.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often can cause bad effects.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Your device overheats (system unit/laptop body is very hot)
  • You are not able to open your apps or they are opening for ages
  • Unknown process is running in the background and consumes your PC resources
  • Windows Defender does not respond
  • How dangerous is the Drill.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, Drill.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, because all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience exceptionally sluggish efficiency. Pages can open for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who works online.

    Drill.exe Technical Summary.

    File Name Drill.exe
    Type Trojan Coin Miner
    Detection Name Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution Method Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behavior Roamingproquota.exe, Asdsdagsda.exe, Qwdaxza.exe
    Removal Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Drill.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a solitary bad thing coin miners do to your computer. Drill.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malevolent functions properly, it wrecks the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the original in the process of computer recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides slowing down your PC, performing at peak level for long times can trigger damage to your device as well as raise electricity expenses. PC elements are created to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.

    Compact and well-protected processor cooling system is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if affected while running, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Drill.exe can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Video cards are also prone to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Drill.exe coin miner virus?

    Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    One more way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy site as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for every setup. Prior to criticizing these people for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus software and new parts for your desktop.

    How to remove the Drill.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.

    Boot into Windows Safe Mode

    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.

    windows safe mode boot option with command prompt

    When your PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.

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    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    Security engineer focused on malware behavior, removal workflows, and Windows hardening. Robert reviews threat articles for practical accuracy, checking detection names, symptoms, and cleanup steps before publication.

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