Serviceks.exe process comes from a malicious application that can properly be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer pretty much unusable because of high CPU use.
What is Serviceks.exe process?
Serviceks.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Serviceks.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Serviceks.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It sometimes can cause unhappy effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Serviceks.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Serviceks.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, because all processor power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your needs, all it pays attention to is making money 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 for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.
Serviceks.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Serviceks.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Dxcap.exe, Remezttf.exe, Zhemdo_build.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Serviceks.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single bad activity coin miners perform to your system. Serviceks.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To execute all malicious functions correctly, it ruins the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be reverted to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, running at peak level for long times may cause damage to your machine as well as increase power bills. PC components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Small and well-protected CPU fan is not very easy to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for instance, by the user much earlier before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Serviceks.exe can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have very fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% only after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Serviceks.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
One more way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the suspicious website as a part of a program. People that spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not require the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a huge lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for each setup. Prior to criticizing these people for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software and new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Serviceks.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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party apps, 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 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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