Mfebrowserhost.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Mfebrowserhost.exe process belongs to a harmful application that can properly be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer roughly nonfunctional because of high CPU usage.
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What is Mfebrowserhost.exe process?

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

As I have actually specified previously, Mfebrowserhost.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, but the consequences are generally the identical. Because coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware capacity of your desktop to perform this operation. This virus doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you probably want to make use of your desktop for other activities – it will consistently consume over 80% of your CPU power.

Mfebrowserhost.exe Windows Process

Mfebrowserhost.exe – Very high CPU and GPU usage

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Mfebrowserhost.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes may cause sad effects.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining term means the action 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 high-end computer is required. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who make profit 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

  • Microsoft Defender is stopped;
  • CPU and GPU is loaded at 80-90% exactly after the system start
  • Cooling fans are running at high speed and create a lot of noise
  • A single process in Task Manager consumes all CPU and GPU power
  • How dangerous is the Mfebrowserhost.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, Mfebrowserhost.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is making money 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 up for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.

    Mfebrowserhost.exe Technical Summary.

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

    “Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your PC. Mfebrowserhost.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To perform all malevolent functions successfully, it ruins the protection mechanisms 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 added by this coin miner to connect your PC 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, running at peak level for long times can cause damage to your machine and increase power expenses. 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 well-protected CPU cooling system is not very easy to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while working, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Mfebrowserhost.exe malware can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have increased wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.

    How did I get Mfebrowserhost.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 among “major” viruses. Adware frequently works as a carrier for Mfebrowserhost.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that around 30% of all viruses spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Mfebrowserhost.exe is right with them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    An additional way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable web page 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 earn money. For this reason, there is a huge temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for every setup. Prior to blaming these individuals for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.

    How to remove the Mfebrowserhost.exe miner from my PC?

    The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software

    Eliminating such a virus demands the use of specific tool. Proper security tool should have high capability at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage even on weak computers. In addition, it is better to have proactive protection in your security tool – to stop the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these elements for various factors. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal choice that fits all of the discussed characteristics.5

    Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Mfebrowserhost.exe miner consumes 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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, just like the majority of non-critical system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Mfebrowserhost.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 Mfebrowserhost.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Mfebrowserhost.exe

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