Psagent.exe executable file belongs to a malicious application that can properly be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system pretty much unfunctional due to high CPU use.
What is Psagent.exe process?
Psagent.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Psagent.exe – Very high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as processor for system work, so Psagent.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes can result in unhappy effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Psagent.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Psagent.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, as all CPU power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from exceptionally sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that works online.
Psagent.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Psagent.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Qaadminagent.exe, Psadminagent.exe, Gamingservicesnet.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Psagent.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative activity coin miners perform to your personal computer. Psagent.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your operating system. To carry out all malicious functions effectively, it ruins the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. 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 PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides slowing down your PC, running at peak power for long times may cause damage to your device and raise electricity bills. Hardware components are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Tiny and covered CPU fan is quite hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if affected while spinning, for instance, by the user much before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Psagent.exe can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Video cards are also tend to have increased wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is surely a bad case when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Psagent.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 item on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a very big temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for each setup. Before blaming these individuals for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Psagent.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 apps, along with the majority of non-critical system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the system 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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