Dropboxupdate.exe executable file is related to a malicious application that can properly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer pretty much unfunctional because of high CPU usage.
What is Dropboxupdate.exe process?
Dropboxupdate.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have mentioned earlier, Dropboxupdate.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file may be diverse, but the impacts are almost always the identical. Because coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware power of your desktop to perform this operation. This virus doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you probably need to use your system for other activities – it will constantly use over 80% of your processor power.
Dropboxupdate.exe – Really high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their operations. In that instance, you will struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as essential as CPU for system work, so Dropboxupdate.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It often may lead to unhappy consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining term means the action 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 machine is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed 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 gain money via this coin miner use someones’ computers instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Dropboxupdate.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Dropboxupdate.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, as all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, 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 struggle with extremely slow performance. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that works online.
Dropboxupdate.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Dropboxupdate.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Alg.exe, Bcdedit.exe, Iccproxy.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Dropboxupdate.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your computer. Dropboxupdate.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malicious functions properly, it wrecks the protection mechanisms 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 number of new notes – they are added by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your computer’s performance, running at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your machine and increase electricity costs. Hardware components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and covered CPU fan is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Dropboxupdate.exe miner can easily lead to GPU failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Dropboxupdate.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 widespread malicious programs among “serious” malware. Adware often works as a carrier for Dropboxupdate.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that approximately 30% of all viruses spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Dropboxupdate.exe is right with them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
One more way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. For this reason, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for each setup. Prior to criticizing these people for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Dropboxupdate.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 needs making use of special program. Effective antivirus should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage also on weak systems. On top of that, it is better to have on-run protection in your security solution – to prevent the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these elements for various reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that reason. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb option that fits all of the specified features.5
Before the virus removal, it is important to reboot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Dropboxupdate.exe miner consumes a lot of processor power, 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 software, along with the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Dropboxupdate.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 Dropboxupdate.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Dropboxupdate.exe
Description: The Dropboxupdate.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Dropboxupdate.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.
