Lsassn.exe process comes from a harmful application that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much unusable because of high CPU usage.
What is Lsassn.exe process?
Lsassn.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Lsassn.exe – Very high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that instance, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as essential as CPU for system work, so Lsassn.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often may lead to bad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Lsassn.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Lsassn.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, since all processor power is used by a malware. 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 experience incredibly slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who does a job online.
Lsassn.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Lsassn.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Job.exe, Dgen.exe, Igx64.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Lsassn.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary bad thing coin miners do to your PC. Lsassn.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To complete all malevolent operations effectively, it wrecks the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new notes – they are added by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes shall be gone back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, running at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your device as well as increase electricity bills. Hardware components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered processor cooling system is not very easy to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if touched while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Lsassn.exe miner can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also prone to have very fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted case when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Lsassn.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 website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a very big lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every setup. Prior to blaming these people for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Lsassn.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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, just like the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC 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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