Igfxext.exe process belongs to a malicious program that can correctly be defined as a coin miner virus. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much nonfunctional because of high CPU use.
What is Igfxext.exe process?
Igfxext.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Igfxext.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Igfxext.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes may lead to unhappy results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Igfxext.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Igfxext.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as 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 browser is open, you will likely suffer from exceptionally slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that works online.
Igfxext.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Igfxext.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Accsvc.exe, Tidings.exe, Music.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Igfxext.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your personal computer. Igfxext.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To perform all malevolent operations effectively, it ruins the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be reverted to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your system’s performance, running at peak level for a long period of time may cause damage to your machine and increase power costs. Hardware components are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and well-protected CPU fan is quite hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if touched while running, for instance, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Igfxext.exe can easily lead to GPU failure3. Video cards are also tend to have fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Igfxext.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 dubious site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a huge temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for each installation. Before blaming these guys for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Igfxext.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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, just like 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 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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