Drm.exe process is related to a malicious program that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer almost nonfunctional because of high CPU usage.
What is Drm.exe process?
Drm.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have pointed out in the introduction, Drm.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the effects are generally the identical. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware power of your desktop to conduct this process. This virus doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you may want to use your device for other tasks – it will always take over 80% of your CPU power.
Drm.exe – Extremely high CPU/GPU use
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as crucial as processor for system work, so Drm.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes can cause sad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Crypto mining term means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a high-end desktop is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this task, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of tens and hundreds of video cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Crooks who gain money 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 Drm.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First of all, Drm.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 making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with exceptionally slow efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.
Drm.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Drm.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Remove.cr_hand, Cr_auto.exe, Settingsapp.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Drm.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners do to your computer. Drm.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To execute all malicious functions effectively, it ruins the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to avoid recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be reverted to the original in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, running at peak power for a long period of time may cause damage to your device and raise electricity costs. Hardware components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered processor cooling system is quite hard to damage. Meanwhile, graphic cards have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while spinning, for instance, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Drm.exe malware can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Video cards are also tend to have fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely a bad case when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Drm.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 malicious programs among “serious” viruses. Adware often functions as a carrier for Drm.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that around 30% of all viruses spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Drm.exe is just one of them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked versions of popular programs (which do not demand 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 receive a coin for each setup. Before criticizing these guys for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus software as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Drm.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 requires using special app. Appropriate anti-malware program should have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage also on weak computers. In addition, it is recommended to have proactive protection in your protection tool – to stop the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender lacks these elements for different reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect option that fits all of the discussed qualities.5
Before the malware removal, it is important to reboot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Drm.exe miner consumes a lot of CPU capacity, it is needed 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.
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 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 CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Drm.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 Drm.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Drm.exe
Description: The Drm.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Drm.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.
