Pathping.exe executable file is related to a harmful program that can accurately be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much unfunctional as a result of high CPU utilization.
What is Pathping.exe process?
Pathping.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Pathping.exe – Very high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Pathping.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often can cause bad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Pathping.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, Pathping.exe virus makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, since all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely sluggish performance. Pages can open up for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that does a job online.
Pathping.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Pathping.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Dashost.exe, Espeongateway.exe, Microsoftaudio.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Pathping.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single bad activity coin miners perform to your PC. Pathping.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To complete all malevolent functions effectively, it ruins the protection features 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 number of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, performing at peak power for long times can cause damage to your device as well as increase power expenses. PC elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and covered processor fan is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if affected while running, for example, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Pathping.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Video cards are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when the performance of your graphic card plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Pathping.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 PC is by downloading it from the dubious web page as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Thus, there is a huge temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for every setup. Prior to criticizing these people for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software and new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Pathping.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 software, along with the majority of non-crucial system components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the computer without dealing with high CPU 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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