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
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
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
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
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.
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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