Ipconfig.exe process comes from a harmful program that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer almost nonfunctional due to high CPU usage.
Originally, the ipconfig.exe process belongs to a Windows application – IP Configuration Utility. It is an embedded system tool that allows you to manage the IP configurations. However, as it often happens with legit process names, this one is sometimes used by coin miner trojans.
What is Ipconfig.exe process?
Ipconfig.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have mentioned in the introduction, Ipconfig.exe is possibly a coin miner trojan. To figure out, if your instance of this process is benevolent or malicious, check the following symptoms. Considering that coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware capacity of your PC to perform this procedure. This malware doesn’t care about the fact that you probably want to use your desktop for other tasks – it will constantly take over 80% of your processor power.
Ipconfig.exe – Extremely high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Ipconfig.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It often can cause unhappy results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining is a term that means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a strong machine is required. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of tens and hundreds of GPUs to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Fraudsters 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
How dangerous is the Ipconfig.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Ipconfig.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, as all processor power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it pays attention to is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience extremely slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that works online.
Ipconfig.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Ipconfig.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Robotdemo.exe, Ruternbroker.exe, Splwow64.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Ipconfig.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners do to your computer. Ipconfig.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious functions successfully, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new entries – they are added by this coin miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be thrown back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your device as well as raise power expenses. Hardware elements 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 processor fan is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while spinning, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Ipconfig.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failur3. Video cards are also tend to have fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted case when the performance of your GPU plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Ipconfig.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 malevolent programs through “serious” viruses. Adware often works as a carrier for Ipconfig.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that around 30% of all malware spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Ipconfig.exe is right among them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. For this reason, there is a huge temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every installation. Before criticizing these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Ipconfig.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Getting rid of such a virus needs using special program. Effective security tool should have high capability at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage also on weak computers. Additionally, it is better to have on-run security in your protection solution – to stop the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for different reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a great choice that fits all of the specified characteristics.5
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to reboot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Ipconfig.exe miner consumes a lot of processor power, it is needed 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.
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 system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
Remove Ipconfig.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.
After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.
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.
Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.
Remove Ipconfig.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Ipconfig.exe
Description: The Ipconfig.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Ipconfig.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
User Review
( votes)References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
- Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
