Gpagent.exe process belongs to a malicious application that can properly be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unusable due to high CPU utilization.
What is Gpagent.exe process?
Gpagent.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Gpagent.exe – Extremely high CPU/GPU use
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as important as processor for system work, so Gpagent.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It often can lead to sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Gpagent.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First of all, Gpagent.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, as 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 incredibly sluggish performance. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.
Gpagent.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Gpagent.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Fish.exe, Settings.exe, Microsofthost.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Gpagent.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single bad thing coin miners perform to your system. Gpagent.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malicious operations successfully, it wrecks the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. 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 computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be reverted to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your computer, performing at peak level for long times can cause damage to your device as well as increase power bills. Hardware elements are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered processor fan is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for example, by the user much before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Gpagent.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Gpagent.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
Another way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable website as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Hence, there is a huge temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every setup. Before blaming these people for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Gpagent.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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows 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.
References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
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