Healthy.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Healthy.exe executable file belongs to a malevolent application that can properly be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware form utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unfunctional because of high CPU utilization.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

When we talk about the intrusion of unfamiliar programs into your computer’s work, the proverb “Forewarned is forearmed” describes the situation as accurately as possible. Gridinsoft Anti-Malware is exactly the tool that is always useful to have in your armory: fast, efficient, up-to-date. It is appropriate to use it as an emergency help at the slightest suspicion of infection.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware 6-day trial available.
EULA | Privacy Policy | GridinSoft

@topcybersecuritySubscribe to our Telegram channel to be the first to know about news and our exclusive materials on information security.

What is Healthy.exe process?

Healthy.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have actually pointed out earlier, Healthy.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the .exe file can be different, however, the consequences are usually the identical. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware capacity of your personal computer to run this process. This virus doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you may want to use your device for other activities – it will constantly consume over 80% of your CPU power.

Healthy.exe Windows Process

Healthy.exe – Extremely high CPU/GPU usage

Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Healthy.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes may result in sad consequences.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Crypto mining means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful PC is needed. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms usually consist of dozens of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “general” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Crooks who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Extremely bad performance
  • CPU/GPU cooler fan creates a lot of noise
  • High temperature of the device (for laptops)
  • 80-90% consumption of CPU/GPU resources by an unknown process
  • Microsoft Defender is not working
  • How dangerous is the Healthy.exe miner?

    Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system

    First, Healthy.exe malware makes your system 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 wants, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with incredibly slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that does a job online.

    Healthy.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameHealthy.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorWup.virus/, Windowsloader.virus/, Default_directory.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Healthy.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners do to your computer. Healthy.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To perform all malicious operations properly, it wrecks the security 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 notes – they are added by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be reverted to the original in the process of system recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides slowing down your computer, performing at peak power for a long period of time can trigger damage to your machine as well as raise electricity 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.

    Little and covered processor fan is not very easy to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Healthy.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Healthy.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 the most common malicious programs among “severe” malware. Adware frequently serves as a carrier for Healthy.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that about 30% of all viruses spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Healthy.exe is right among them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    An additional way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious site as a part of a program. People who spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a huge lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for each installation. Prior to blaming these individuals for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your PC.

    How to remove the Healthy.exe miner from my PC?

    The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software

    Eliminating such a virus requires making use of specific program. Proper security tool must have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage even on weak computers. Additionally, it is better to have proactive protection in your protection solution – to prevent the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for various factors. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal option that fits each of the specified characteristics.5

    Prior to the virus removal, it is important to reboot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Healthy.exe miner takes a lot of processor power, it is required to halt 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.

    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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Healthy.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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware free trial

    After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.

    Scanning in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

    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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware after the scan process

    Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.

    Remove Healthy.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Healthy.exe

    Description: The Healthy.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Healthy.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

    Sending
    User Review
    3.67 (6 votes)
    Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)

    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
    3. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
    4. Read more about various malware type on GridinSoft Threat Encyclopedia.
    5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

    Spanish Turkish

    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    Security Engineer. Interested in malware, reverse engineering, white ethical hacking. I like coding, travelling and bikes.

    Leave a Reply

    Sending

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.