Light.exe process belongs to a malevolent application that can properly be recognized as a coin miner virus. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost unusable because of high CPU usage.
What is Light.exe process?
Light.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have specified in the introduction, Light.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the .exe file may be different, but the impacts are usually the same. Considering that coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware power of your PC to run this operation. This malware doesn’t care about the fact that you probably need to use your device for other activities – it will constantly take over 80% of your CPU power.
Light.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Light.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes may cause unhappy consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Crypto mining means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong desktop is required. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of video cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “normal” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Fraudsters who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Light.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, Light.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, since all processor power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with exceptionally slow efficiency. 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.
Light.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Light.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Data00.vji, Unrealcefsubprocess.exe, 2nd.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Light.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners do to your PC. Light.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To execute all malicious operations properly, it wrecks the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments are about to be thrown back to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your computer’s performance, running at peak power for long times can trigger damage to your machine as well as raise power expenses. Hardware components are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered CPU cooling system is hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if affected while running, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Light.exe malware can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also tend to have very fast wearing when used 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 exploited in such a way.
How did I get Light.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 one of the most common malevolent programs through “serious” malware. Adware often functions as a carrier for Light.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that about 30% of all malware spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Light.exe is right one of them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to get paid. Thus, there is a very big lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for every installation. Prior to blaming these guys for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Light.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Removing such a virus needs making use of specific program. Proper security tool should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage also on weak computers. Furthermore, it is better to have on-run protection in your security tool – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these features for different reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal choice that fits each of the discussed features.5
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Light.exe miner takes a lot of CPU capacity, it is needed to stop 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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, just like the majority of non-critical system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Light.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 Light.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Light.exe
Description: The Light.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Light.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.
