Lightingservice.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Lightingservice.exe executable file belongs to a malevolent application that can accurately be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost nonfunctional because of high CPU utilization.
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What is Lightingservice.exe process?

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

As I have specified in the previous paragraph, Lightingservice.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, but the impacts are almost always the identical. Because coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware capacity of your PC to perform this process. This malware does not care about the fact that you probably want to make use of your PC for other tasks – it will continuously use over 80% of your CPU power.

Lightingservice.exe Windows Process

Lightingservice.exe – Really high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that instance, you will struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Lightingservice.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It often can lead to bad results.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining means the action 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 strong desktop is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, 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 “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who gain money 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 Lightingservice.exe miner?

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

    Initially, Lightingservice.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, because all processor power is consumed by a virus. 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 experience extremely slow efficiency. Pages can open for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.

    Lightingservice.exe Technical Summary.

    File Name Lightingservice.exe
    Type Trojan Coin Miner
    Detection Name Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution Method Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behavior Atkexcomsvc.exe, Asusfancontrolservice.exe, Gamesdk.exe
    Removal Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Lightingservice.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your personal computer. Lightingservice.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To execute all malevolent functions successfully, it wrecks the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be gone back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides decreasing your system’s performance, performing at peak level for long times may cause damage to your machine as well as increase power costs. PC components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.

    Small and well-protected CPU fan is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs 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 Lightingservice.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also tend to have fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.

    How did I get Lightingservice.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 malicious programs among “serious” malware. Adware sometimes works as a carrier for Lightingservice.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – 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 Lightingservice.exe is right among them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    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 unreliable site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to get paid. Thus, there is a huge temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every installation. Prior to criticizing these people for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus software as well as new parts for your PC.

    How to remove the Lightingservice.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 demands the use of specific program. Effective antivirus must have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage even on weak PCs. On top of that, it is recommended to have on-run security in your security solution – to prevent the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for different factors. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that reason. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect option that fits all of the discussed features.5

    Before the malware removal, it is important to reboot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Lightingservice.exe miner takes a lot of CPU 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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, just like the majority of non-critical operating 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 Lightingservice.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 Lightingservice.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Lightingservice.exe

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

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    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 Cybersecurity Glossary.
    5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    I'm Robert Bailey, a passionate Security Engineer with a deep fascination for all things related to malware, reverse engineering, and white hat ethical hacking.

    As a white hat hacker, I firmly believe in the power of ethical hacking to bolster security measures. By identifying vulnerabilities and providing solutions, I contribute to the proactive defense of digital infrastructures.

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