Hamster.exe process is related to a malicious program that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system almost nonfunctional as a result of high CPU utilization.
What is Hamster.exe process?
Hamster.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Hamster.exe – Very high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Hamster.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes may cause unhappy consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Hamster.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, Hamster.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, since all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with incredibly sluggish performance. Pages can open up for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.
Hamster.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Hamster.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Strength.exe, Ausetup.exe, Winaaiservice.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Hamster.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single negative activity coin miners do to your computer. Hamster.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To complete all malevolent operations properly, it ruins the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be reverted to the original in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your computer, performing at peak power for a long period of time may trigger damage to your device and increase electricity bills. PC components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Small and well-protected processor fan is hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while working, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Hamster.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad case when the performance of your graphic card decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Hamster.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
An additional way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the untrustworthy site as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to make money. For this reason, there is a very big lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each installation. Prior to criticizing these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright 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 figure for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Hamster.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 applications, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows 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.
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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