Min.exe process belongs to a malicious application that can accurately be defined as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost unfunctional due to high CPU utilization.
What is Min.exe process?
Min.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Min.exe – Really high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Min.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes may lead to sad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Min.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, Min.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, because all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, 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 incredibly slow efficiency. Pages can open up for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who does a job online.
Min.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Min.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Roamingproquota.exe, Asdsdagsda.exe, Qwdaxza.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Min.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners do to your PC. Min.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To execute all malicious operations correctly, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, performing at peak level for a long period of time may cause damage to your machine and increase electricity costs. PC components are created to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and well-protected CPU cooling system is quite hard to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access rotors, 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 extremely high load caused by Min.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Video cards are also tend to have fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Min.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 thing on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious web page as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a huge lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for each installation. Prior to criticizing these individuals for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Min.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 applications, just like the majority of non-crucial system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer 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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