Operfmon.exe process comes from a harmful application that can properly be recognized as a coin miner virus. That malware type utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unfunctional due to high CPU use.
What is Operfmon.exe process?
Operfmon.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Operfmon.exe – Very high CPU as well as GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as essential as CPU for system work, so Operfmon.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often can result in bad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Operfmon.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Operfmon.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, since all processor power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, all it pays attention to is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience extremely slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that works online.
Operfmon.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Operfmon.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Googleupdatecore.exe, Nvtmrep.exe, Officec2rclient.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Operfmon.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single bad activity coin miners do to your computer. Operfmon.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malevolent functions correctly, it ruins the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new entries – they are added by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be gone back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, performing at peak power for a long period of time can trigger damage to your machine as well as raise electricity costs. Hardware elements 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.
Compact and well-protected processor cooling system is hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if touched while spinning, for instance, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Operfmon.exe malware can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is surely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Operfmon.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 untrustworthy web page as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. Thus, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for every installation. Prior to blaming these guys for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Operfmon.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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started 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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