Searchfilter.exe process belongs to a harmful program that can accurately be identified as a coin miner trojan virus. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer pretty much unfunctional because of high CPU usage.
What is Searchfilter.exe process?
Searchfilter.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Searchfilter.exe – Extremely high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their operations. In that instance, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as essential as processor for system work, so Searchfilter.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use it all. It often may cause sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Searchfilter.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Firstly, Searchfilter.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, since all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from exceptionally sluggish performance. Pages can open up for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person that works online.
Searchfilter.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Searchfilter.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Mmm1.exe, Etece.exe, Etehe.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Searchfilter.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single negative activity coin miners do to your personal computer. Searchfilter.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious operations effectively, it wrecks the security mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these adjustments shall be gone back to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your system’s performance, performing at peak level for a long period of time may trigger damage to your device and increase electricity costs. PC components are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected processor cooling system is hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Searchfilter.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. Video cards are also tend to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely a bad situation when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Searchfilter.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
An additional way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the suspicious website as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Hence, there is a very big temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for each installation. Prior to criticizing these guys for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid purchasing 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 as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Searchfilter.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 software, along with the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the computer 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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