The Flow.exe is an executable exe file that belongs to the Flow process which comes along with the Flow Software developed by Conexant Systems software developer. In some cases, the Flow.exe process belongs to a malevolent program that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware form utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly nonfunctional because of high CPU utilization.
What is Flow.exe process?
Flow.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Flow.exe – Extremely high CPU/GPU use
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as crucial as the processor for system work, so Flow.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes may cause sad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Flow.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Flow.exe virus makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore because all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until the web browser is open, you will likely struggle with incredibly slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who works online.
Flow.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Flow.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Auepuf.exe, Cefsharp.browsersubprocess, Wdscore.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Flow.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your personal computer. Flow.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious functions correctly, wrecks the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, running at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your machine as well as increase power costs. PC elements are designed to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered CPU fan is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broken if touched while spinning, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Flow.exe can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs also tend to have very fast worn when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an undesirable case when your GPU’s performance decreases by 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Flow.exe coin miner virus?
Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
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 website as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a huge temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for each installation. Prior to blaming these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is much cheaper 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 Flow.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.
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, just like the majority of non-critical system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC without dealing with the high CPU usage of the coin miner.
References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of crypto mining.
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