Rhc.exe Virus (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Rhc.exe executable file is related to a malicious application that can correctly be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer roughly unusable because of high CPU utilization.

What is Rhc.exe process?

Rhc.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Rhc.exe Windows Process

Rhc.exe – Extremely high CPU as well as GPU use

Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their operations. In that instance, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as vital as CPU for system work, so Rhc.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes can cause unhappy consequences.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining is a term that means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a strong desktop is needed. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of dozens of video cards to complete their task efficiently. Such computer systems are not usable for “normal” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who make profit 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

  • Microsoft Defender is stopped;
  • CPU and GPU is loaded at 80-90% exactly after the system start
  • Cooling fans are running at high speed and create a lot of noise
  • A single process in Task Manager consumes all CPU and GPU power
  • How dangerous is the Rhc.exe miner?

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

    Firstly, Rhc.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your needs, all it pays attention to is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely struggle with extremely sluggish performance. Pages can open up for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who works online.

    Rhc.exe Technical Summary.

    File Name Rhc.exe
    Type Trojan Coin Miner
    Detection Name Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution Method Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behavior Optimizator.exe, Svcservice.exe, Ntlhost.exe
    Removal Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Rhc.exe removal.

    “Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners do to your system. Rhc.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To carry out all malicious operations effectively, it ruins the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be reverted to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your computer slow, running at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your machine and raise electricity costs. PC elements are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.

    Little and well-protected processor fan is hard to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while spinning, for example, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Rhc.exe malware can easily lead to GPU failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Rhc.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 one of the most common malevolent programs among “major” viruses. Adware often serves as a carrier for Rhc.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that approximately 30% of all malware spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Rhc.exe is right one of them.

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    One more way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the unreliable website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to earn money. Thus, there is a huge temptation to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and get a coin for every setup. Before blaming these individuals for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.

    How to remove the Rhc.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.

    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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, just like the majority of non-critical Windows components, are not launched with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

    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.

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    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    Security engineer focused on malware behavior, removal workflows, and Windows hardening. Robert reviews threat articles for practical accuracy, checking detection names, symptoms, and cleanup steps before publication.

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