Microsoftconhost.exe process is related to a malevolent application that can correctly be identified as a coin miner virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unfunctional due to high CPU use.
What is Microsoftconhost.exe process?
Microsoftconhost.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Microsoftconhost.exe – Extremely high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as important as processor for system work, so Microsoftconhost.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes can cause sad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Microsoftconhost.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, Microsoftconhost.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, because all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who does a job online.
Microsoftconhost.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Microsoftconhost.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Lklklk.exe, Cheat.exe, Remove.siww1049 |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Microsoftconhost.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single bad activity coin miners do to your PC. Microsoftconhost.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malevolent functions successfully, it wrecks the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak power for long times can cause damage to your device and raise power costs. Hardware elements are created to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered processor fan is hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Microsoftconhost.exe malware can easily lead to GPU failure3. GPUs are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is surely a bad 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 Microsoftconhost.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
Another way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to get paid. Thus, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for each installation. Prior to criticizing these individuals for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software and new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Microsoftconhost.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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party software, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high processor 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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