Oko.exe executable file belongs to a harmful application that can properly be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unusable due to high CPU utilization.
What is Oko.exe process?
Oko.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Oko.exe – Extremely high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as crucial as CPU for system work, so Oko.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often can cause sad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Oko.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Oko.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, because all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until 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 headache for a person who works online.
Oko.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Oko.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Xx.exe, Works.exe, Rundll32.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Oko.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your personal computer. Oko.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To complete all malicious functions properly, it ruins the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be reverted to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your computer’s performance, running at peak level for long times can cause damage to your device and raise power expenses. PC elements are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered CPU fan is hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if touched while running, for instance, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Oko.exe can easily lead to GPU failure3. Video cards are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad case when the performance of your graphic card plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Oko.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 unreliable site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to earn money. Hence, there is a very big lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for each setup. Before criticizing these individuals for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Oko.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, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not launched 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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