The Rockstarservice.exe process is associated with Rockstar Games’ software services. Rockstar Games is a popular video game publisher known for titles such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and Max Payne. It should not create any significant CPU load, though may use network connection bandwidth time to time. However, this process name may also be used by malicious programs.
Rockstarservice.exe is responsible for handling various functions related to game updates, online services, social features, and other related activities provided by Rockstar Games. It is usually legit, benevolent and is completely harmless. Nonetheless, there could be situations where this process takes a lot of CPU power without an obvious reason. In such a case, you are most likely seeing a malicious copy of the one. In this article, I will explain how to find out if the rockstarservice.exe process is safe, and how to remove it when it is malicious.
What is Rockstarservice.exe process?
Rockstarservice.exe is legit service related to Rockstar Games. However, this process name may be used by malware.
As I said, Rockstarservice.exe process is generally safe. But in some cases, malicious software can use legitimate process names to disguise their activities. If you suspect that the Rockstarservice.exe process is causing high CPU usage and negatively impacting the performance of your PC, it’s crucial to investigate further to determine the cause. The most obvious sign of such a situation is high CPU load that comes from this process. Taking over 70% of your CPU power, it makes the computer very slow and laggy.
Rockstarservice.exe – Very high CPU/GPU use
High CPU usage is not the only sign that the process is malicious. To prove the point, you can check the location of the executable file of this process. Click its instance in the Task Manager with right mouse button and choose “Open file location” in the appeared box. Legit file is placed in the folder you’ve installed your games from Rockstar. Other locations of the file, particularly AppData\Temp, mean that this process is malicious.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic part of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful desktop is needed. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms usually consist of dozens of graphic cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such computer systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Rockstarservice.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Rockstarservice.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, since all CPU 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 browser is open, you will likely experience extremely slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that does a job online.
Rockstarservice.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Rockstarservice.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Nahimicapisvc64.exe, Originclientservice.exe, Originwebhelperservice.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Rockstarservice.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary negative activity coin miners do to your system. Rockstarservice.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To execute all malicious functions successfully, it wrecks the protection features 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 number of new notes – they are brought in by this coin 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 making your PC slow, running at peak power for a long period of time can cause damage to your machine as well as increase electricity costs. Hardware elements are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Small and covered CPU fan is not very easy to broke. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Rockstarservice.exe virus can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure1. Video cards are also prone to have increased wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely a bad case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Rockstarservice.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 through “serious” viruses. Adware frequently works as a carrier for Rockstarservice.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which contain a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that approximately 30% of all viruses spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Rockstarservice.exe is right with them.
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 untrustworthy web page as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to make money. Hence, there is a very big lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for every installation. Before criticizing these people for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid buying 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 software and new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Rockstarservice.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 involves making use of specific app. Proper security tool should have high capability at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage also on weak systems. Furthermore, it is recommended to have proactive protection in your security tool – to halt the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for various reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that objective. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a great choice that fits each of the discussed features.2
Prior to the virus removal, it is important to boot your system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Rockstarservice.exe miner takes a lot of CPU power, it is required to halt 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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
Remove Rockstarservice.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 Rockstarservice.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Rockstarservice.exe
Description: The "Rockstarservice.exe" process is generally a legitimate component associated with Rockstar Games' software services. Rockstar Games is a renowned video game publisher known for titles like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. Nonetheless, malware can sometimes adopt legitimate process names to evade detection. Coin miner malware, in particular, can consume substantial CPU resources and impact system performance.
Operating System: Windows
Application Category: Trojan
User Review
( votes)References
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
