Profile.exe process belongs to a malicious program that can accurately be recognized as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer pretty much unusable as a result of high CPU usage.
What is Profile.exe process?
Profile.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Profile.exe – Very high CPU/GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as essential as processor for system work, so Profile.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It often can cause unhappy effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Profile.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, Profile.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all processor power is used 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 web browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely slow performance. Pages can open for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who works online.
Profile.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Profile.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Osdmnuu.exe, Npe.exe, Wndows.driver |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Profile.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your system. Profile.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To conduct all malicious functions properly, it wrecks the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be gone back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your computer’s performance, performing at peak power for a long period of time can trigger damage to your machine and increase power bills. PC elements are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only in case when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected CPU fan is not very easy to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while spinning, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Profile.exe virus can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also tend to have fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad case when the performance of your video card plunges 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Profile.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 item on your PC is by downloading it from the dubious site as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every installation. Before blaming these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Profile.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 software, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you 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.
Leave a Comment