Mines.exe executable file belongs to a malicious application that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much nonfunctional due to high CPU use.
What is Mines.exe process?
Mines.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Mines.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Mines.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It often may result in bad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Mines.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First off, Mines.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, since all CPU power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it pays attention to is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who does a job online.
Mines.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Mines.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Travel.exe, Gallery.exe, Izteys.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Mines.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners do to your personal computer. Mines.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malicious functions correctly, it ruins the security mechanisms 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 load of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments are about to be thrown back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your system’s performance, running at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your machine and increase power bills. PC components are designed to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered processor cooling system is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, 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 very high load caused by Mines.exe miner can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also tend to have fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is surely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Mines.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 thing on your PC is by downloading it from the suspicious website as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to make money. Thus, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every setup. Before blaming these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Mines.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 system is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, just like the majority of non-critical operating 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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