Photo.exe executable file is related to a malicious program that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly nonfunctional because of high CPU use.
What is Photo.exe process?
Photo.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have pointed out in the introduction, Photo.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, but the effects are almost always the same. Because coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware power of your PC to conduct this process. This malware doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you may need to make use of your PC for other tasks – it will continuously consume over 80% of your CPU power.
Photo.exe – Really high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that instance, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as vital as processor for system work, so Photo.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes may result in unhappy effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining is a term that means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful PC is needed. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of dozens of video cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “general” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Photo.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, Photo.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, since all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your needs, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely slow performance. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that works online.
Photo.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Photo.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Dfx.exe, Rmr.exe, Sihclient.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Photo.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative thing coin miners do to your system. Photo.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To complete all malevolent operations successfully, it wrecks the security 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 number of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be gone back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, running at peak level for a long period of time can cause damage to your device and raise power expenses. PC elements are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Small and well-protected CPU fan is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Photo.exe virus can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also tend to have very fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an undesirable case when the performance of your GPU plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Photo.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 the most common malevolent programs through “serious” viruses. Adware frequently functions as a carrier for Photo.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – an additional adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that about 30% of all malware spread through the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Photo.exe is just among them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious website as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Thus, there is a very big lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and acquire a coin for every installation. Before blaming these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Photo.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 special app. Effective antivirus should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization even on weak systems. Furthermore, it is better to have proactive security in your security solution – to stop the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these features for different reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that reason. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a great choice that fits all of the mentioned characteristics.5
Before the virus removal, it is important to reboot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Photo.exe miner takes a lot of processor power, 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.
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 software, along with the majority of non-critical Windows components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
Remove Photo.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.
After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.
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.
Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.
Remove Photo.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Photo.exe
Description: The Photo.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Photo.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
User Review
( votes)References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
- Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
