Shtime.exe process belongs to a malicious program that can correctly be identified as a coin miner virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer pretty much unusable as a result of high CPU usage.
What is Shtime.exe process?
Shtime.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Shtime.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their operations. In that situation, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as important as processor for system work, so Shtime.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It often can cause unhappy consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Shtime.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First off, Shtime.exe malware makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, as all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your needs, all it pays attention to is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience exceptionally slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any sort of logins will take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who does a job online.
Shtime.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Shtime.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Png_inst.exe, Utilman.exe, Unic.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Shtime.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your computer. Shtime.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To execute all malicious operations properly, it ruins 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 notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the initial state in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, performing at peak level for long times may trigger damage to your machine and raise power bills. PC elements are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Little and covered CPU cooling system is hard to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Shtime.exe can easily lead to graphic card failure3. GPUs are also tend to have increased wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an undesirable situation when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Shtime.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 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 popular programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Thus, there is a huge temptation to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every installation. Prior to blaming these guys for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright to avoid paying for 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 program as well as new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Shtime.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 apps, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not launched 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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