SGMAIN.EXE process comes from a harmful application that can accurately be identified as a coin miner virus. That malware form uses your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unfunctional as a result of high CPU use.
What is SGMAIN.EXE process?
Sgmain.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have actually pointed out previously, SGMAIN.EXE is a coin miner virus. The names of the executive file can be diverse, but the effects are generally the same. Since coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all possible hardware power of your PC to perform this procedure. This virus does not care about the fact that you probably want to use your device for other tasks – it will constantly take over 80% of your processor power.
SGMAIN.EXE – Really high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often used on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Sgmain.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often may result in sad consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Cryptocurrency mining term means the action 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 strong PC is needed. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of graphic cards to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “normal” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Sgmain.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Sgmain.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, because all processor power is consumed 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 extremely sluggish performance. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that works online.
Sgmain.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Sgmain.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Mnolyk.exe, Nbveek.exe, Ilasm.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Sgmain.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single negative activity coin miners do to your personal computer. Sgmain.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malicious operations correctly, it wrecks 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 entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes are about to be thrown back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, performing at peak level for a long period of time may cause damage to your machine and increase electricity bills. PC elements are designed to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Small and well-protected CPU cooling system is hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while spinning, for example, by the user much before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Sgmain.exe virus can easily lead to graphic card failure2. GPUs are also tend to have fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted case when the performance of your GPU decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Sgmain.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 widespread malicious programs through “serious” malware. Adware sometimes acts as a carrier for Sgmain.exe malware injection: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any type – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that around 30% of all malware spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Sgmain.exe is just among them.
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the dubious web page as a part of a program. People that spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a very big 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 also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is more affordable to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger sum for antivirus software as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Sgmain.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, just like the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high CPU 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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