Shellinfrastructurehost.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Written by Robert Bailey
Shellinfrastructurehost.exe process belongs to a harmful application that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly nonfunctional as a result of high CPU usage.
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What is Shellinfrastructurehost.exe process?

Shellinfrastructurehost.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have actually mentioned in the previous paragraph, Shellinfrastructurehost.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file can be different, however, the impacts are generally the same. Because coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware power of your desktop to run this procedure. This virus does not pay attention to the fact that you may want to use your desktop for other tasks – it will continuously consume over 80% of your CPU power.

Shellinfrastructurehost.exe Windows Process

Shellinfrastructurehost.exe – Extremely 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 probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Shellinfrastructurehost.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize all of it. It often can cause sad effects.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful machine is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of video cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “usual” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ computers 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 Shellinfrastructurehost.exe miner?

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

    Initially, Shellinfrastructurehost.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, since all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience extremely slow performance. Pages can open for years, any sort of logins will likely take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who works online.

    Shellinfrastructurehost.exe Technical Summary.

    File Name Shellinfrastructurehost.exe
    Type Trojan Coin Miner
    Detection Name Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution Method Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behavior Nod42.exe, Health.exe, Cvc.exe
    Removal Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Shellinfrastructurehost.exe removal.

    “Visible” harm is not a solitary unpleasant thing coin miners perform to your PC. Shellinfrastructurehost.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To complete all malevolent operations properly, it ruins 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 load of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be thrown back to the original in the process of system recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your computer slow, running at peak power for long times can cause damage to your machine and raise electricity costs. Hardware components are created to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.

    Small and covered CPU fan is hard to crack. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Shellinfrastructurehost.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have very fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an unwanted case when the performance of your GPU decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

    How did I get Shellinfrastructurehost.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 prevalent malevolent programs through “serious” malware. Adware often acts as a carrier for Shellinfrastructurehost.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” can belong to any kind – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics say that about 30% of all viruses spread with the malevolent banners are coin miners – and Shellinfrastructurehost.exe is just one of them.4

    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    Another way you could get this thing on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable web page as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked versions of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to earn money. Thus, there is a huge temptation to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for every setup. Before criticizing these people for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus program and new parts for your PC.

    How to remove the Shellinfrastructurehost.exe miner from my PC?

    The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software

    Removing such a virus needs the use of special app. Effective anti-malware program must have high efficiency at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to make no problems with usage even on weak systems. Additionally, it is better to have proactive security in your protection tool – to prevent the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for different reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that goal. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal choice that fits each of the mentioned features.5

    Prior to the virus removal, it is important to reboot your operating system into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Shellinfrastructurehost.exe miner takes a lot of CPU power, it is needed to stop 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.

    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 software, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

    Remove Shellinfrastructurehost.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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware free trial

    After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.

    Scanning in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

    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.

    GridinSoft Anti-Malware after the scan process

    Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.

    Remove Shellinfrastructurehost.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner

    Name: Shellinfrastructurehost.exe

    Description: The Shellinfrastructurehost.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Shellinfrastructurehost.exe will create your CPU to go for very warm temperatures for prolonged periods of time, which could reduce the life of the CPU.

    Operating System: Windows

    Application Category: Trojan

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    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.
    4. Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
    5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    I'm Robert Bailey, a passionate Security Engineer with a deep fascination for all things related to malware, reverse engineering, and white hat ethical hacking.

    As a white hat hacker, I firmly believe in the power of ethical hacking to bolster security measures. By identifying vulnerabilities and providing solutions, I contribute to the proactive defense of digital infrastructures.

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