Nheqagent.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Nheqagent.exe process is related to a malicious application that can accurately be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unfunctional because of high CPU usage.
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What is Nheqagent.exe process?

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

As I have actually pointed out earlier, Nheqagent.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the impacts are generally the identical. Because coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware power of your PC to run this procedure. This malware doesn’t take note of the fact that you probably need to make use of your system for other tasks – it will continuously use over 80% of your CPU power.

Nheqagent.exe Windows Process

Nheqagent.exe – Extremely high CPU/GPU use

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

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Crypto mining is a term that means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a strong machine is needed. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of video cards to complete their task efficiently. Such computer systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who gain money 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

  • 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 Nheqagent.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, Nheqagent.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, since all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your needs, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience extremely sluggish performance. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who does a job online.

    Nheqagent.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameNheqagent.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorPceve.exe, Proquota.exe, Raptor.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Nheqagent.exe removal.

    “Visible” damage is not a single negative thing coin miners perform to your system. Nheqagent.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To conduct all malevolent functions effectively, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are added by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes shall be reverted to the original in the process of system recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, performing at peak level for long times can trigger damage to your machine as well as raise 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 covered CPU cooling system is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Nheqagent.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also tend to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.

    How did I get Nheqagent.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 widespread malicious programs through “serious” malware. Adware frequently functions as a carrier for Nheqagent.exe malware injection: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that about 30% of all malware spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Nheqagent.exe is just one of them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    Another way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the untrustworthy website as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to earn money. Hence, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every setup. Prior to criticizing these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software and new parts for your PC.

    How to remove the Nheqagent.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 using specific program. Proper antivirus should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization even on weak systems. Additionally, it is better to have on-run protection in your security tool – to halt the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these functions for various reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that goal. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal choice that fits all of the specified characteristics.5

    Prior to the malware removal, it is important to boot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Nheqagent.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU capacity, it is needed 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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-crucial system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Nheqagent.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 Nheqagent.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Nheqagent.exe

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