Midnauhe.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Midnauhe.exe process is related to a malicious application that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly nonfunctional because of high CPU utilization.
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What is Midnauhe.exe process?

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

As I have mentioned earlier, Midnauhe.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file can be different, however, the impacts are generally the same. Since coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware power of your personal computer to perform this process. This virus doesn’t care about the fact that you may need to make use of your desktop for other activities – it will consistently take over 80% of your processor power.

Midnauhe.exe Windows Process

Midnauhe.exe – Really high CPU and GPU usage

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

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong PC is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of GPUs to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who make profit 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 Midnauhe.exe miner?

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

    Firstly, Midnauhe.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, since all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that does a job online.

    Midnauhe.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameMidnauhe.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorPc_pcpc.exe, Windows.service, Packs.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Midnauhe.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners do to your personal computer. Midnauhe.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malicious functions effectively, it wrecks the security 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 added by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be thrown back to the original in the process of PC recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, running at peak power for a long period of time may trigger damage to your device as well as raise power expenses. Hardware elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.

    Little and well-protected CPU cooling system is hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while spinning, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Midnauhe.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Midnauhe.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 sometimes works as a carrier for Midnauhe.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that approximately 30% of all viruses spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Midnauhe.exe is right one of them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    An additional way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy web page as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Thus, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each installation. Before criticizing these guys for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid paying for the program in such a way? It is much cheaper 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 Midnauhe.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 software. Appropriate antivirus must have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization even on weak PCs. In addition, it is recommended to have on-run security in your protection tool – to prevent the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for various reasons. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a superb choice that fits all of the specified qualities.5

    Before the malware removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Midnauhe.exe miner takes a lot of processor 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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, just like the majority of non-critical system components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the computer without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Midnauhe.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 Midnauhe.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Midnauhe.exe

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