Qaadminagent.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Qaadminagent.exe process is related to a malevolent application that can correctly be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost nonfunctional as a result of high CPU usage.
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What is Qaadminagent.exe process?

Qaadminagent.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have pointed out in the introduction, Qaadminagent.exe is a coin miner trojan. The names of the executive file can be different, but the impacts are generally the same. Considering that coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware power of your personal computer to conduct this operation. This malware does not care about the fact that you may want to make use of your system for other activities – it will continuously take over 80% of your processor power.

Qaadminagent.exe Windows Process

Qaadminagent.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU use

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as essential as processor for system work, so Qaadminagent.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes may result in sad effects.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Crypto mining is a term that means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very strong desktop is needed. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of dozens of GPUs to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “general” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Extremely bad performance
  • CPU/GPU cooler fan creates a lot of noise
  • High temperature of the device (for laptops)
  • 80-90% consumption of CPU/GPU resources by an unknown process
  • Microsoft Defender is not working
  • How dangerous is the Qaadminagent.exe miner?

    Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system

    Initially, Qaadminagent.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, as all processor power is used by a malware. 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 browser is open, you will likely suffer from exceptionally sluggish efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person that does a job online.

    Qaadminagent.exe Technical Summary.

    File NameQaadminagent.exe
    TypeTrojan Coin Miner
    Detection NameTrojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution MethodSoftware bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behaviorPsadminagent.exe, Gamingservicesnet.exe, Msiexec.exe
    RemovalDownload and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Qaadminagent.exe removal.

    “Visible” harm is not a solitary bad activity coin miners perform to your computer. Qaadminagent.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To perform all malevolent operations properly, it ruins the security components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new entries – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments are about to be thrown back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides decreasing your system’s performance, performing at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your device as well as raise power bills. Hardware elements are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.

    Small and covered processor cooling system is hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large 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 unusually high load caused by Qaadminagent.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad situation when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Qaadminagent.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 widespread malicious programs among “severe” malware. Adware often serves as a carrier for Qaadminagent.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that approximately 30% of all malware spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Qaadminagent.exe is just with them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    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 suspicious website as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to make money. Thus, there is a huge lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for each installation. Prior to blaming these guys for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in such a way? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software as well as new parts for your desktop.

    How to remove the Qaadminagent.exe miner from my PC?

    The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software

    Getting rid of such a virus requires the use of special software. Proper anti-malware program must have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with utilization even on weak PCs. Furthermore, it is better to have on-run security in your protection solution – to stop the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these features for different reasons. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal choice that fits each of the mentioned characteristics.5

    Before the malware removal, it is important to reboot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Qaadminagent.exe miner consumes a lot of processor power, it is required to stop 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.

    Boot into Windows Safe Mode

    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.

    windows safe mode boot option with command prompt

    When your PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-critical operating 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.

    Remove Qaadminagent.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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware free trial

    After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.

    Scanning in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

    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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware after the scan process

    Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.

    Remove Qaadminagent.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Qaadminagent.exe

    Description: The Qaadminagent.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Qaadminagent.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

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    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
    3. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
    4. Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
    5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    I'm Robert Bailey, a passionate Security Engineer with a deep fascination for all things related to malware, reverse engineering, and white hat ethical hacking.

    As a white hat hacker, I firmly believe in the power of ethical hacking to bolster security measures. By identifying vulnerabilities and providing solutions, I contribute to the proactive defense of digital infrastructures.

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